Techdirt.https://www.techdirt.com/Easily digestible tech news...en-usSun, 02 Aug 2015 19:06:27 GMTSun, 02 Aug 2015 19:06:27 GMT30Techdirt.https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/td-88x31.gifhttps://www.techdirt.com/Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/HYCRtNC_s1A/story01.htm<p> This week, we got a lot of reactions to the huge (but not necessarily surprising) discovery of evidence showing that <em>Happy Birthday</em> has been in the public domain for nearly a century. There was a general agreement that this whole situation is insane, but one specific suggestion that it was "petty" and "a waste of taxpayers money" garnered a push-back from <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/user/aphexbr">PaulT</a> that won <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150727/16042931768/happy-birthday-copyright-bombshell-new-evidence-warner-music-previously-hid-shows-song-is-public-domain.shtml#c152">most insightful comment of the week</a>: </p> <blockquote><em>A sign that the system is broken? Yes. A petty dispute? I don't call the fact that a private company is hoarding rights to a song that should have been in the public domain decades ago to the tune of $2 million/year petty. If the song is public domain, they are making huge levels of income based on a lie. <br /><br /> A waste of taxpayer money? Again, I don't see how returning the public's property to its rightful owners under the original contract is a waste, especially if this results in a wider discussion of how broken and one-sided the copyright system is. Especially if as a result of this, Warner are found to have been misleading enough to be forced to return its ill-gotten gains and other companies are forced to return public domain properties to their rightful owners. OK, that's unlikely, but I can dream. <br /><br /> It's a silly dispute in that it should never have been allowed to come to this, but since we're here it's a good fight to have.</em></blockquote> <p> Meanwhile, we were quite disturbed by one veteran's story of being on the receiving end of a police raid, and discovering that quite unlike his military training, it is "standard procedure to point guns at suspects in many cases to protect the lives of police officers". <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/user/thatoneguy">That One Guy</a> took second place for insightful by <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/05194831784/cop-to-vet-receiving-end-bogus-raid-investigating-things-beforehand-just-slows-us-down.shtml#c34">expanding on this extremely worrying contrast</a>: </p> <blockquote><em> And they wonder why people don't, and should <b>never</b>, trust them... <br /><br /> The military are taught that guns are dangerous weapons, only to be brought out when you plan on using them, and are willing to accept the consequences of doing so. The police on the other hand are apparently taught to draw guns at the first possible opportunity, and treat them not as deadly tools fully capable of <b>killing</b> someone with a single twitch of a finger, but simply a method of intimidation. <br /><br /> Also, gotta love(or is that 'loathe')that double standard in play. <br /><br /> Police point guns at someone else to 'protect' themselves, even when it's not needed? Perfectly acceptable, and in fact outright desirable. <br /><br /> If someone pointed a gun at a cop in order to 'protect' themselves from a them? Attempted murder, assaulting an officer, whatever charges they can cook up, and assume they aren't gunned down on the spot(not likely), they're almost certain to spend several years in jail for 'attempted murder of an officer'.</em></blockquote> <p> For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with one more nod to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/user/thatoneguy">That One Guy</a> for a thematically related comment on a partially-related post about asset forfeiture, this time taking on the <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150724/06522631747/audits-asset-forfeiture-program-uncover-funds-used-to-pay-student-loans-property-used-as-rent-free-housing.shtml#c124">pervasive and dangerous idea that "criminals don't deserve the protection of the law"</a>: </p> <blockquote><em>That is one of the nastier ideas that has infected 'law enforcement' specifically, and even society in general, the idea that if you break the law, or are even accused of breaking the law, that it means you no longer deserve to be protected by the law. I've even seen people argue this in the comments section on TD, the idea that those that act outside the laws have, by their actions, removed themselves from the protections the laws provide, and no longer deserve any sort of fair or just treatment by the system, because criminal/terrorist. <br /><br /> 'Sure we stole a bunch of stuff from someone, without any sort of trial or anything, but look, they're a criminal, that makes it okay!' <br /><br /> This idea however is terrible, as both 'guilty' and innocent both deserve the full protection of the law, otherwise it becomes utterly meaningless. If you can strip away someone's right simply by accusation, or even the finding of guilt, then those protections cease to exist, and are merely optional, to be applied at whim.</em></blockquote> <p> Next, we head to our excellent guest post by <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/user/barryeisler">Barry Eisler</a> about the many ways in which the Authors Guild and similar groups utterly fail to represent the interest of authors. One one commenter, apropos of absolutely nothing, accused us of "loving pirates" and promoting piracy, Barry dove into the comments to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/15551431793/authors-guilded-united-representing-not-authors.shtml?threaded=false#c212">point out the irrelevance of this assertion... then debunk it anyway, for good measure</a>: </p> <blockquote><em>Forget about the misleading "never met a pirate you didn't love" cliche intro, or the bullshit notion that anyone is advocating for piracy as a "right"... if your point is that the Authors Guild's efforts against piracy somehow redeem all the pro-publisher activities I discuss in my article, your response is at best awfully tangential. <br /><br /> Anti-piracy efforts don't help authors because piracy doesn't hurt authors: <br /><br /> <a href="http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/07/23/new-survey-shows-ebook-buyers-in-the-uk-outnumber-pirates-by-fourteen-to-one/">http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/07/23/new-survey-shows-ebook-buyers-in-the-uk-outnumber-pirates-by-fourteen-to-one/</a> <br /><br /> <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150722/06502731723/aussie-study-infringers-spend-more-content-than-non-infringers.shtml">https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150722/06502731723/aussie-study-infringers-spend-more-content-than-non-infringers.shtml</a> <br /><br /> The whole notion that piracy is a zero-sum game, that someone who downloads a book for free would have paid full price for it if the free download were impossible, is antithetical to common sense and everyday experience. Anti-piracy efforts are emotion driven and ignore logic and evidence. <br /><br /> I say all this, by the way, as an author who is regularly informed by the AG et al that he should be terrified of and enraged by piracy. Yawn. <br /><br /> With all that, you want to rebut my post by talking about how the AG hates piracy? How about a response a little more on-point than that?</em></blockquote> <p> Over on the funny side, for first place we return to the <em>Happy Birthday</em> saga, and Warner's obfuscating response. One anonymous commenter <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/12001231792/warner-musics-response-to-evidence-happy-birthday-public-domain-who-really-knows-anything-really.shtml#c185">couldn't resist a little singalong</a>: </p> <blockquote><em>Happy Birthday to sue<br /> Happy Birthday to sue<br /> if it quacks like a duck<br /> we'll sue it like one too <br /><br /> Happy Birthday to me<br /> Happy Birthday to me<br /> I screwed the public domain<br /> and all of you <br /><br /> I'm sure they are singing all the way to the bank... 10M gross @ 2M net for the last 80 years, I could retire on that</em></blockquote> <p> In second place, we've got a simple response from <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/user/jupiterkansas">jupiterkansas</a> to a simple question: <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/08412831775/white-house-finally-answers-snowden-pardon-petition-only-good-whistleblowing-is-punished-whistleblowing.shtml#c156">have "We the People" petitions ever had any real results?</a> </p> <blockquote><em>Well... we know they're not building a Death Star.</em></blockquote> <p> For editor's choice on the funny side, we start with an anonymous comment about the hologram rap concert that was shut down because politicians and cops didn't like his lyrics &#8212; but it's an idea that <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150727/11174031766/police-shut-down-hologram-concert-rapper-because-they-dont-like-his-lyrics-pretty-clear-first-amendment-problem.shtml#c6">could be applied in all sorts of situations</a>: </p> <blockquote><em>I think we should follow the Youtube example and make them take a course on the Constitution. After 3 strikes you're no longer allowed to hold office.</em></blockquote> <p> Finally, in response to Wordpress taking a stand against abusive DMCA takedowns, we've got someone under the name <strong>Mr Big Content</strong> providing <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/05285531772/wordpress-takes-stand-against-abusive-dmca-takedown-notices-others-should-pay-attention.shtml#c17">some extremely deadpan sarcasm</a>: </p> <blockquote><em><strong>This is Why We Need Much Stricter Copyright Laws</strong> <br /><br /> All this does is put more obstacles in the way of intellectual property owners trying to prevent theft of their intellectual property. Why should intellectual property be a special case, with all these extra hoops to jump through, compared to any other property? It should be treated the same! <br /><br /> It is too much to expect intellectual property owners to bear all the burden of looking after their property. The Internet has a moral obligation to help us. After all, they are the technical experts, what is so hard for us should be childishly easy for them, they just don't want to do the work. Unlike normal property, intellectual property needs to be treated very specially and carefully, with lots of extra legal restrictions, because it so easily gets thefted</em></blockquote> <p> That's all for this week, folks! </p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150802/10440131828/funniestmost-insightful-comments-week-techdirt.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150802/10440131828/funniestmost-insightful-comments-week-techdirt.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150802/10440131828/funniestmost-insightful-comments-week-techdirt.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566495816/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566495816/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566495816/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566495816/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566495816/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566495816/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566495816/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566495816/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566495816/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/HYCRtNC_s1A" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sun, 02 Aug 2015 19:00:00 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150802/10440131828/funniestmost-insightful-comments-week-techdirt.shtmlbirthday-busthttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150802/10440131828Leigh Beadonhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48a4dc68/sc/24/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A80A20C10A440A1318280Cfunniestmost0Einsightful0Ecomments0Eweek0Etechdirt0Bshtml/story01.htmThis Week In Techdirt History: July 26th - August 1sthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/vT7J-3T3WbM/story01.htm<p> <strong>Five Years Ago</strong> </p> <p> The last few weeks have been full of copyright ridiculousness, but this week in 2010 features a lot of exploration into copyright's nuances. First, the Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress finally outlined <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100726/09564610361.shtml">DMCA exemptions for jailbreaking smartphones</a> and some other situations, while <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100727/04171010375.shtml">rejecting some other proposed exceptions</a> &#8212; and sparking Canada to take a fresh look at its own anti-circumvention proposals, essentially <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100726/17374910366.shtml">admitting it lets the US heavily influence Canadian copyright law</a>. One US court started to put some limitations on <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100725/22194810352.shtml">the anti-circumvention clause itself</a> by suggesting that simply using circumvention software is not itself a violation; the British High Court ruled that <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100725/23325310353.shtml">emulating a piece of software is not infringement</a>; and another ruling let venues <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100729/13371210416.shtml">deduct from their BMI license deals when they directly license music</a>. This was also hot on the heels of ASCAP's boss refusing Larry Lessig's invitation to debate, and bizarrely claiming that <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100727/23070310388.shtml">said invitation was an attempt to "silence" ASCAP</a>. </p> <p> A bunch of other interesting questions arose in the form of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100725/23325310353.shtml">copyright concerns over Flipbook</a>, the sale of prints made from <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100728/00124510389.shtml">long-lost (but recently found) Ansel Adams negatives</a>, attempts to assert new copyrights on work by <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100724/16542310348.shtml">an artist who had been dead for 71 years</a>, and the highly problematic proposal of a <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100106/1033187634.shtml">new digital transmission right</a>. Meanwhile, the British Library was concerned about <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100727/03374210374.shtml">copyright hindering research</a>, and gamers everywhere were worrying about <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100729/02530710407.shtml">copyright stymying the preservation of video game history</a>. </p> <p> <strong>Ten Years Ago</strong> </p> <p> We got a bunch of wonderful tech-panics this week in 2005. Perhaps most notable was the head of the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force declaring that <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050725/017242.shtml">"cantenna" wi-fi extenders are nefarious and <em>illegal</em></a> and getting <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050727/1036208.shtml">the news media to swallow it</a>. We also saw a <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050726/1025225.shtml">panic over "pod slurping"</a> (an unnecessarily specific version of data-theft-by-trespassing), and a seemingly random trio of senators got <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050728/1841258.shtml">extremely concerned about porn on file-sharing networks</a> while we awaited a mysterious new anti-porn bill <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050728/0146208.shtml">informed by obsolete data</a>. One lawyer in the US was moving on from his freakouts about <em>Grand Theft Auto</em> and unveiling <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050727/1119209.shtml">brand new freakouts about <em>The Sims</em></a>, while Australia was outdoing the US on the former by <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050729/1231255.shtml">effectively banning GTA altogether</a>. Beatles producer George Martin was complaining about <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050728/1349223.shtml">how easy it is for people to record music these days</a>, and Techdirt itself became the target of a very tiny and personal tech-freakout: <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050727/2343259.shtml">one unknown AOL user who was convinced we were spamming him</a> (and apparently unable to find the unsubscribe button in every one of our double-opt-in newsletters). At least it didn't go down the way things do in Russia, where <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050725/1241251.shtml">a notorious spammer was found brutally murdered</a>. </p> <p> Also, long before the world reeled at Pluto's loss of planet status (something I believe is now back up for debate?), astronomers were pointing to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050729/193246.shtml">a <em>tenth</em> planet even further out</a>. </p> <p> <strong>Fifteen Years Ago</strong> </p> <p> Napster's fate was in a serious state of flux this week in 2000. First, a judge <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000726/1933222.shtml">ordered an injunction, shutting it down</a>; the pundits piled on, taking <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000727/0210249.shtml">a wide variety of views on this development</a> (some much smarter than others); but, by the end of the week, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000728/1757202.shtml">Napster was granted a stay on the injunction</a> and kept things running; cue an <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000728/034237.shtml">unbelievable volume of discussion</a> from all corners of the internet, with some realizing that the RIAA's war on Napster, even if ultimately "successful", was <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000728/0159252.shtml">a perfect example of utterly failed strategic thinking</a>. </p> <p> As you follow Techdirt's posts right around this time, you'll notice something that we started to notice ourselves: <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000728/1132208.shtml">intellectual property was becoming our most popular topic and a tentpole of the blog</a> (even though today it's hard to imagine that ever <em>wasn't</em> the case!) </p> <p> This week in 2000 we also saw early glimmers of major technological trends, like the fact that <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000725/1631240.shtml">the video-game industry would become a massive entertainment sector rivalling Hollywood</a>. But we also saw lots of tech that was just slightly ahead of its time: wireless was heavily hyped and clearly going to matter some day, but <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000724/1123211.shtml">lots of key factors were holding back adoption</a>, especially <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000728/1330226.shtml">in the US</a> and especially when it came to things like <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000725/1021200.shtml">wireless banking</a>. Some tech was clearly moving forward &#8212; such as <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000725/1635222.shtml">input methods for handheld devices</a> (which were still pretty dismal back then) &#8212; while other areas were a bit more stubborn: newspapers didn't seem to be <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000724/1846248.shtml">dying nearly as fast as predicted</a>, and 83% of people in the UK said they'd <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/000725/1027206.shtml">never switch to the internet for news</a>. </p> <p> <strong>107 & 68 Years Ago</strong> </p> <p> July 26th is a double-whammy in the history of America's federal landscape in the areas of law enforcement, security, espionage and more. First, in 1908, it was the day that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation#Creation">The Bureau of Investigation (which would become the FBI) was formed</a>. Then, thirty-nine years later, it marks the passage of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Act_of_1947">National Security Act of 1947</a>, which established the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, and laid the groundwork for the Department of Defense. </p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150801/10390931819/this-week-techdirt-history-july-26th-august-1st.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150801/10390931819/this-week-techdirt-history-july-26th-august-1st.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150801/10390931819/this-week-techdirt-history-july-26th-august-1st.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566463066/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a0e405/sc/28/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566463066/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a0e405/sc/28/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566463066/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a0e405/sc/28/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566463066/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a0e405/sc/28/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566463066/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a0e405/sc/28/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566463066/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a0e405/sc/28/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566463066/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a0e405/sc/28/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566463066/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a0e405/sc/28/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566463066/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a0e405/sc/28/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48a0e405/sc/28/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/vT7J-3T3WbM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 01 Aug 2015 19:00:00 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150801/10390931819/this-week-techdirt-history-july-26th-august-1st.shtmlhappy birthday FBI and CIA!https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150801/10390931819Leigh Beadonhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48a0e405/sc/28/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A80A10C10A390A9318190Cthis0Eweek0Etechdirt0Ehistory0Ejuly0E26th0Eaugust0E1st0Bshtml/story01.htmAwesome Stuff: Making GovTrack Even More Awesomehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/4qgTnxGhFWs/story01.htm<p> If you pay any sort of ongoing attention to Congress, you're probably familiar with <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/">GovTrack</a>, the extremely useful online resource created by Joshua Tauberer in 2004, containing robust info on the status of all the bills that hit the floors of the House and the Senate. It's a fantastic tool, and today we're looking at <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1872382405/govtrack-insider">a crowdfunding push to make it even <em>better</em></a> by hiring a full-time researcher to add additional context and analysis to the bills and votes being tracked. </p> <p> <center><iframe width="580" height="435" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1872382405/govtrack-insider/widget/video.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"> </iframe></center> </p> <div style="float:right;margin-left:12px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="420" scrolling="no" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1872382405/govtrack-insider/widget/card.html?v=2" width="220"></iframe></div> <p> <strong>The Good</strong> </p> <p> Until very recently, GovTrack was fully automated and had no staff &#8212; which is why one man's pet project has been going strong for over a decade without much if anything in the way of revenue. But Joshua knows there's lots more the site could be doing, and recently hired an intern to start testing out a big new addition to GovTrack: researchers who can closely follow the most important bills and dig into them deeper than the algorithms can, providing commentary and analysis plus <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/events/bill-summaries" target="_blank">readable summaries of legislation</a>, and reporting on the underlying political context. To that end, they've also launched <a href="https://medium.com/govtrack-insider" target="_blank">GovTrack Insider</a> as a Medium page, which already features a bunch of posts on various important bills and votes from the last few months. </p> <p> The Kickstarter goal is to upgrade from an intern to a full-time researcher on a six-month contract &#8212; or <em>two</em> as a stretch goal. This could really take the already-useful GovTrack to a whole new level. </p> <p> <strong>The Bad</strong> </p> <p> While I don't by <em>any</em> means think this is a bad idea, there are still a few potential pitfalls. The first is that it's not clear how this one-time fundraising goal can/will translate into something ongoing. A researcher can do a whole lot in six months, but the ongoing flow of bills through Congress requires ongoing attention with no end in sight. Will we be looking at another Kickstarter for the next congressional session? Or is there some plan to secure new revenue streams with the expanded GovTrack? Either way, if this project is as useful to people as it's likely to be, some will surely be happy to keep paying. </p> <p> The other, perhaps more critical, pitfall is politicization. Once you move from automatically tracking raw data to actually writing up summaries and analyses, it's almost inevitable that you'll have to start taking political/ideological sides from time-to-time, no matter how committed you might be to neutrality or objectivity. It might prove very difficult to expand GovTrack in this way without beginning to be seen as an at-least-slightly partisan publication rather than a wholly neutral tool for anyone to use &#8212; though, that doesn't mean it's impossible. </p> <p> <strong>The Rewarding</strong> </p> <p> There are some very interesting rewards available for backers of this project (and the choice to link the dollar amounts for the various tiers to important Congress-related numbers is a neat one). At lower levels, backers can get in on webinars and group chats that explore Congressional issues and provide advice on political advocacy, while the higher tiers offer the ability to get custom summaries and analyses written of bills that you choose. </p> <p> But perhaps the most attractive (or at least the most fun) options are those that take advantage of the research intern's <em>other</em> skill: art. At various tiers, he'll draw you a custom caricature of any Representative or Senator that you choose. No word on if you get to dictate how flattering or unflattering said caricature is, though. </p> <div style="clear:both;"></div><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20150801/07125231817/awesome-stuff-making-govtrack-even-more-awesome.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20150801/07125231817/awesome-stuff-making-govtrack-even-more-awesome.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20150801/07125231817/awesome-stuff-making-govtrack-even-more-awesome.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566529562/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a01738/sc/7/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566529562/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a01738/sc/7/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566529562/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a01738/sc/7/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566529562/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a01738/sc/7/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566529562/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a01738/sc/7/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566529562/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a01738/sc/7/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566529562/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a01738/sc/7/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566529562/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a01738/sc/7/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566529562/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48a01738/sc/7/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48a01738/sc/7/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/4qgTnxGhFWs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 01 Aug 2015 16:00:00 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20150801/07125231817/awesome-stuff-making-govtrack-even-more-awesome.shtmlhow-a-bill-becomes-a-lawhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150801/07125231817Leigh Beadonhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48a01738/sc/7/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Cblog0Cinnovation0Carticles0C20A150A80A10C0A71252318170Cawesome0Estuff0Emaking0Egovtrack0Eeven0Emore0Eawesome0Bshtml/story01.htmRidiculous 'Terrorist Reporting' Provision In Intelligence Authorization Would Undermine The First Amendmenthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/3cw5O5vxPHU/story01.htmA few weeks ago, we wrote about a troubling provision that the Senate Intelligence Committee had inserted into this year's intelligence authorization bill, which would require social networks to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150705/12544131554/senate-intel-committee-wants-facebook-twitter-youtube-to-report-terrorist-related-content.shtml">report to the government</a> any "terrorist activity" they see on their systems. As we noted, this has all sorts of problems, and seems more designed to (1) generate headlines and (2) chill free speech than do anything <i>useful</i>. Thankfully, Senator Ron Wyden has <a href="http://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-blocks-intelligence-authorization-bill-over-flawed-provision-targeting-social-media-platforms" target="_blank">put a hold on the bill</a> specifically over this provision. <blockquote><i> “There is no question that tracking terrorist activity and preventing online terrorist recruitment should be top priorities for law enforcement and intelligence agencies,” Wyden said, in a statement for the record today. “But I haven’t yet heard any law enforcement or intelligence agencies suggest that this provision will actually help catch terrorists, and I take the concerns that have been raised about its breadth and vagueness seriously.” <br /><br /> “Internet companies should not be subject to broad requirements to police the speech of their users,”Wyden continued. </i></blockquote> But the issue goes even deeper than that. As Markham Erickson has written, there are <a href="http://www.steptoecyberblog.com/2015/07/31/on-the-intelligence-authorization-bill/" target="_blank">significant free speech concerns</a> raised by this provision, in large part because "terrorist activity" is not defined at all. Anywhere. It's just this vague term -- and given that companies may face liability for not reporting "terrorist activity" to the government, you can bet an awful lot of perfectly fine and protected speech is going to get reported. And that's worrisome. <blockquote><i> A key problem with Section 603, however, is that the trigger for the reporting mandate is based on the vague and undefined term “terrorist activity.” This term is not a term of art in the US criminal code and arguably goes well beyond criminal activity to speech that is protected under the First Amendment. </i></blockquote> Erickson also points out that the comparison that supporters have made of this bill to one that requires companies to report child porn, is that child porn is "per se unlawful and never protected speech" under the US Constitution. But "terrorist activity" is just vague. <blockquote><i> The NCMEC reporting obligations, however, relate to images that are per se unlawful and are never protected speech under the US Constitution. A government mandate that an Internet company report facts and circumstances connected to the vague and overbroad term “terrorist activity” certainly would result in overbroad reporting to the government of speech that is protected under the First Amendment. </i></blockquote> And, on top of that, this move would give other countries a blueprint for how to demand tech companies hand over information on users: <blockquote><i> More troubling, if adopted, the provision would serve as a global template for other countries to impose reporting requirements for activities those jurisdictions deem unlawful. This would be particularly problematic with countries that regulate speech, including political speech, and with authoritarian regimes that would demand that Internet companies police their citizens’ activities. </i></blockquote> And, finally, as noted, with such a vague term, and the threat of serious liability, companies are going to be pressured into serious over-reporting: <blockquote><i> Section 603 also creates a practical compliance problem. Because no one knows the definition of “terrorist activity,” how does one counsel a client to establish a compliance protocol under the proposal? <br /><br /> Any company would be at risk that if it did not report “terrorist activity,” it could be liable if there were a subsequent event that resulted in loss of life, limb, or property. Likely, this would result in designing a protocol to over-report anything that could be considered “terrorist activity.” Given the massive scale of content shared and created on the Internet daily, this would result in reporting of items that are not likely to be of material concern to public safety and would create a “needle in the haystack” problem for law enforcement. This serves no one’s purposes and adds privacy concerns to the First Amendment concerns noted above. <br /><br /> This creates a perverse incentive for a company to avoid obtaining knowledge of any activity that would trigger the reporting requirement—the exact opposite of what the proponents of the legislation want. Yet, designing such an avoidance protocol is nearly impossible. If even one low-level employee received an over-the-transom email about a “terrorist activity,” knowledge of the activity can be imputed to the entire company – exacerbating the potential liability faced by an Internet company. </i></blockquote> Of course, these days, it seems like most in the Senate go by headlines rather than actual understanding of the issues. Hopefully, at least this one time, they'll actually listen to Senator Wyden.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/10061231813/ridiculous-terrorist-reporting-provision-intelligence-authorization-would-undermine-first-amendment.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/10061231813/ridiculous-terrorist-reporting-provision-intelligence-authorization-would-undermine-first-amendment.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/10061231813/ridiculous-terrorist-reporting-provision-intelligence-authorization-would-undermine-first-amendment.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566435891/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566435891/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566435891/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566435891/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566435891/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566435891/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566435891/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566435891/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566435891/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/3cw5O5vxPHU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 01 Aug 2015 02:39:00 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/10061231813/ridiculous-terrorist-reporting-provision-intelligence-authorization-would-undermine-first-amendment.shtmldon't-let-it-passhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150731/10061231813Mike Masnickhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489d2f2b/sc/7/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A7310C10A0A612318130Cridiculous0Eterrorist0Ereporting0Eprovision0Eintelligence0Eauthorization0Ewould0Eundermine0Efirst0Eamendment0Bshtml/story01.htmAnd Now Here Comes Every Other Comic Convention With Trademark Apps For The Generic 'Comic Con'http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/0sBqjqV10vQ/story01.htm<p> Roughly a year ago, we brought you the very dumb story of the San Diego Comic-Con <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140925/06100328635/san-diego-comic-con-fighting-with-salt-lake-city-comic-con-over-trademark.shtml">suing</a> Don Farr Productions, organizers of the Salt Lake City Comic Con, for trademark infringement. If ever there were a classic case of a trademark that had moved into a generic status, "comic-con" and similar iterations would have to be it. There are comic cons <i>everywhere</i>. In the midst of all this, or perhaps because of it, the Salt Lake City Comic Con applied for its own trademark over its name, which, again, ought to have been denied as being too generic in my opinion. The USPTO, in its infinite wisdom, disagreed, <a href="http://www.sunherald.com/2015/07/23/6334005/salt-lake-comic-con-calls-trademark.html">granting them the mark</a> as the trademark suit is still going on. You already know what happened next, don't you? <br /><br /> Yup, every other comics convention that uses comic con, the term so generic that everyone effing uses it, is now <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/07/27/boston-rhode-island-and-kansas-comic-cons-enter-trademark-battle/">lining up at the USPTO's door </a>to get their own trademarks. <blockquote> <i>This week sees the kick-off of this year&#8217;s Boston Comic Con. Which seems a good a time as any to register the trademark for the name for &#8220;Organizing and conducting conventions, exhibitions, and gatherings for entertainment purposes and in the fields of artwork, animation, comic books, fantasy, gaming, popular culture, science fiction, and television and film&#8221; and for &#8220;Comic books, commemorative comic books, posters, commemorative posters&#8221; and &#8220;T-shirts, commemorative T-shirts.&#8221;</i> <br /><br /> <i>They are not alone. Rhode Island Comic Con and Kansas Comic Con have also launched trademark bids in the past month. &#8216;Tis the season&#8230; they may be inspired by the attempts and claims of Salt Lake Comic Con. Denver Comic Con also has a trademark registration.</i> </blockquote> And unless this is stopped tout de suite, there's absolutely no reason to expect that all the other comic cons in all the other cities will be filing their applications soon. Why wouldn't they? The USPTO, in conjunction with a lawsuit over a term that hasn't yet been ruled generic, but should be, have thrown open the door for everyone to get their piece of the generic pie. And the end result of all of this? Tons of billable hours, of course. <blockquote> <i>They can expect a challenge from Comic-Con International, the organisers of San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon, who own the trademarks on San Diego Comic-Con, Anaheim Comic-Con, San Francisco Comic-Con and Los Angeles Comic-Con.</i> </blockquote> Why? <i>Why?</i> Why pay a legal team to spend a ton of time and money fighting for a mark that doesn't threaten you, that has become generic, and that has been employed the entire time your own mega-popular convention has become insanely successful. <i>Why are we doing any of this</i>? </p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/10205531779/now-here-comes-every-other-comic-convention-with-trademark-apps-generic-comic-con.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/10205531779/now-here-comes-every-other-comic-convention-with-trademark-apps-generic-comic-con.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/10205531779/now-here-comes-every-other-comic-convention-with-trademark-apps-generic-comic-con.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566507318/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d482e/sc/7/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566507318/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d482e/sc/7/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566507318/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d482e/sc/7/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566507318/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d482e/sc/7/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566507318/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d482e/sc/7/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566507318/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d482e/sc/7/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566507318/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d482e/sc/7/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566507318/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d482e/sc/7/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566507318/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489d482e/sc/7/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489d482e/sc/7/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/0sBqjqV10vQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 01 Aug 2015 01:21:00 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/10205531779/now-here-comes-every-other-comic-convention-with-trademark-apps-generic-comic-con.shtmlyou-guys-aren't-getting-ithttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150728/10205531779Timothy Geignerhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489d482e/sc/7/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A7280C10A20A55317790Cnow0Ehere0Ecomes0Eevery0Eother0Ecomic0Econvention0Ewith0Etrademark0Eapps0Egeneric0Ecomic0Econ0Bshtml/story01.htmDailyDirt: Hello, World Universe! Hello? (Is This Thing On?)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/1k5Iwi1XSVo/story01.htmThe search for extraterrestrial intelligence (<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=seti">SETI</a>) hasn't yielded much, and some of the results are even a bit <a href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/10/rogue-microwave-ovens-are-the-culprits-behind-mysterious-radio-signals/">embarrassing</a>. We don't really know what to look for when we're listening for alien signals. There's growing evidence that planets like ours are not rare in the universe, but that doesn't necessarily mean intelligent life is abundant. Given the vast distances to neighboring star systems, we're also not likely to visit them any time soon. <ul> <li> <a title="http://www.wired.com/2015/07/russian-tycoon-spending-100-million-hunt-aliens/" href="http://wrd.cm/1GZYW0J">Russian billionaire Yuri Milner is spending $100 million on a Breakthrough Listen initiative that will last 10 years and attempt to find alien intelligence.</a> This effort will scan the universe using telescopes that cover more than ten times of the sky compared to previous projects, and the data will be made public for SETI@home distributed analysis. [<a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/07/russian-tycoon-spending-100-million-hunt-aliens/">url</a>]</li> <li> <a title="http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/21/nasa-assembles-unprecedented-scientific-team-to-find-out-if-were-all-alone/" href="http://bit.ly/1GZYW0I">NASA has its Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) project to look for extraterrestrial life.</a> Identifying exoplanets that might harbor life is a fascinating field that requires an interdisciplinary effort of biologists, physicists, astronomers, geologists and a whole lot of creative thinking. [<a href="http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/21/nasa-assembles-unprecedented-scientific-team-to-find-out-if-were-all-alone/">url</a>]</li> <li> <a title="http://www.popsci.com/scientists-found-no-obvious-signs-life-100000-galaxies?" href="http://bit.ly/1SdRTxo">No obvious signs of life have been seen after looking at 100,000 galaxies.</a> This probably doesn't mean anything other than we don't know what to look for. [<a href="http://www.popsci.com/scientists-found-no-obvious-signs-life-100000-galaxies?">url</a>]</li> </ul> After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our <a title="https://deals.techdirt.com/" href="https://bit.ly/tddailydeals">Daily Deals</a> for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101026/04582411590/dailydirt-hello-world-universe-hello-is-this-thing.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101026/04582411590/dailydirt-hello-world-universe-hello-is-this-thing.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101026/04582411590/dailydirt-hello-world-universe-hello-is-this-thing.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566462604/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ccae2/sc/32/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566462604/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ccae2/sc/32/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566462604/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ccae2/sc/32/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566462604/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ccae2/sc/32/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566462604/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ccae2/sc/32/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566462604/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ccae2/sc/32/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566462604/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ccae2/sc/32/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566462604/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ccae2/sc/32/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566462604/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ccae2/sc/32/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489ccae2/sc/32/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/1k5Iwi1XSVo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Sat, 01 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101026/04582411590/dailydirt-hello-world-universe-hello-is-this-thing.shtmlurls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101026/04582411590Michael Hohttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489ccae2/sc/32/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A10A10A260C0A4582411590A0Cdailydirt0Ehello0Eworld0Euniverse0Ehello0Eis0Ethis0Ething0Bshtml/story01.htmFreedom Of The Press Foundation Sues DOJ Over Its Secret Rules For Spying On Journalistshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/zW6gH96O-5I/story01.htmThe wonderful Freedom of the Press Foundation is now <a href="https://freedom.press/blog/2015/07/we-just-sued-justice-department-over-fbis-secret-rules-using-national-security-letters" target="_blank">suing the US Justice Department</a> for refusing to reveal its rules and procedures for spying on journalists. You can <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2187189/fpf-nsl-foia-complaint.pdf" target="_blank">read the complaint here</a>. The key issue: what rules and oversight exist for the DOJ when it comes to spying on journalists. As you may recall, a few years ago, it came out that the DOJ had been using some fairly sneaky tricks to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/15401423065/doj-unconcerned-about-constitution-obtained-ap-reporters-phone-records.shtml">spy on journalists</a>, including falsely telling a court that reporter James Rosen was a <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130520/11200723149/war-journalists-doj-claimed-fox-news-reporter-was-aider-abettor-co-conspirator-with-leaker.shtml">"co-conspirator"</a> in order to get access to his emails and phone records. In response to a lot of criticism, the DOJ agreed to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130712/12095223781/doj-now-that-weve-been-embarrassed-spying-journalists-well-be-little-more-careful.shtml">"revise" its rules</a> for when it snoops on journalists. <br /><br /> However, there was an important limitation on the "new" rules, as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/us/holder-to-tighten-rules-for-obtaining-reporters-data.html?pagewanted=all&#038;_r=0" target="_blank">the NY Times noted at the time</a>: <blockquote><i> There is no change to how the F.B.I. may obtain reporters’ calling records via “national security letters,” which are exempt from the regular guidelines. A Justice spokesman said the device is 'subject to an extensive oversight regime.' </i></blockquote> Extensive oversight regime, eh? The Freedom of the Press Foundation sought to find out just what kind of extensive oversight there really was -- and came up against a <a href="https://freedom.press/blog/2014/09/when-can-fbi-use-national-security-letters-go-after-journalists-thats-classified" target="_blank">brick wall</a> in the form of black redaction ink: <center> <a href="https://imgur.com/XtP69ms"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XtP69ms.png" width=500 /></a> </center> That's from the DOJ's Inspector General report, concerning a situation where the FBI had used an NSL to access a journalist's communications inappropriately. As the Freedom of the Press Foundation notes, elsewhere in that same report, it appears that the FBI is actually ignoring recommendations of the Inspector General concerning these situations, despite the "First Amendment interests implicated." <center> <a href="https://imgur.com/54N0dSC"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/54N0dSC.png" width=500 /></a> </center> As the Foundation notes, the redactions here make the details entirely opaque, and the Inspector General's Office has made it clear that it disagreed with the redactions, saying that revealing the information behind that black ink "is important to the public's understanding of the FBI's compliance with NSL requirements." Given that the Foundation is now suing to find out those details. The lawsuit specifically requests that the DOJ reveal those documents in their entirety, which includes the "extensive regime, rules, guidelines, or infrastructure that oversees the issuance of NSLs or exigent letters to obtain records regarding a member of the media" as well as "the current procedures that FBI agents must undertake in advance of issuing a NSL or exigent letter to obtain records regarding any member of the media." <br /><br /> I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the DOJ will reply, hysterically, that revealing this kind of information will put national security at risk and could reveal important law enforcement gathering techniques that will aid those out to harm us or some such crap. Perhaps they'll even toss in a request to dump the entire case for reasons of "national security." Just recognize that this is all busllshit. The request here is not for any details that are going to help any criminals get away with anything. All it is asking for is what process the FBI uses to make sure that it's not violating the First Amendment in spying on journalists. If that's something that needs to be kept secret, there can be only one reason: because the FBI is embarrassed by what it's doing in spying on journalists.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/15501231803/freedom-press-foundation-sues-doj-over-secret-rules-spying-journalists.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/15501231803/freedom-press-foundation-sues-doj-over-secret-rules-spying-journalists.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/15501231803/freedom-press-foundation-sues-doj-over-secret-rules-spying-journalists.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566488212/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ce993/sc/24/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566488212/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ce993/sc/24/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566488212/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ce993/sc/24/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566488212/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ce993/sc/24/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566488212/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ce993/sc/24/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566488212/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ce993/sc/24/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566488212/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ce993/sc/24/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566488212/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ce993/sc/24/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566488212/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489ce993/sc/24/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489ce993/sc/24/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/zW6gH96O-5I" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 22:44:00 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/15501231803/freedom-press-foundation-sues-doj-over-secret-rules-spying-journalists.shtmla-little-transparency-pleasehttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150730/15501231803Mike Masnickhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489ce993/sc/24/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A730A0C1550A123180A30Cfreedom0Epress0Efoundation0Esues0Edoj0Eover0Esecret0Erules0Espying0Ejournalists0Bshtml/story01.htmJudge Curious If Malibu Media Is Seeding Its Own Files And Engaged In Copyright Misusehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/yPgTqZmEiGQ/story01.htmIt appears that a judge has begun to get a little more curious about copyright troll giant Malibu Media and how it goes about finding "infringers" to shakedown with settlement agreements. In the past, evidence showed that other similar copyright trolls like Prenda, were engaged in <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130603/02204423292/new-anti-prenda-court-filing-lays-out-tons-evidence-suggesting-john-steele-uploaded-videos-to-bittorrent-himself.shtml">seeding</a> their own content, which would make the file authorized, and thus the shakedown letters a form of "copyright misuse." There have long been rumors that Malibu Media, perhaps in association with the infamous <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140603/18021127448/international-men-mystery-how-discredited-german-anti-piracy-company-may-secretly-be-behind-malibu-medias-copyright-trollery.shtml">"international men of mystery"</a> running the behind-the-scenes operation out of Germany, may be seeding their own files as well. <br /><br /> Now, as <a href="https://twitter.com/Raul15340965/status/626836208564486144" target="_blank">Raul</a> points out, it appears that at least one judge is willing to <a href="http://ia800305.us.archive.org/1/items/gov.uscourts.vaed.310538/gov.uscourts.vaed.310538.26.0.pdf" target="_blank">allow discovery on this point</a> in one of the cases, involving Malibu Media against Matt Guastaferro in a Virginia court, and to examine if Malibu Media has "unclean hands" as a result of this: <blockquote><i> In this case, Defendant has alleged that Plaintiff's claims are barred by the [unclean hands] doctrine "as Plaintiff's use of its copyrights violates public policy." ... Such an allegation does not appear to trigger the doctrine because it says nothing of how Malibu Media "encouraged, invited, aided, compounded, or fraudulently induced" Defendant's allegedly wrongful conduct.... Defendant's response to this motion, however, sets forth factual averments that do appear to support his invocation of the doctrine. <b>For instance, he assets that "IPP or another agent of Malibu Media is responsible for initially seeding some of Malibu's content onto BitTorrent in the first place and for facilitating infringing downloads by BitTorrent users" in an attempt "to extract exorbitant sums from individuals for alleged copyright infringement."</b>... <br /><br /> Malibu Media has moved to strike this defense on the basis that he has "not sufficiently alleged copyright misuse." ... In support thereof, he relies upon a recent decision of this Court, in which it granted Malibu Media's motion to strike "because Plaintiff cannot have unclean hands if Defendant did not sufficiently plead copyright misuse." .... The Court respectfully disagrees with this conclusion and <b>considers the defense one that is better suited for resolution following discovery</b>. Indeed, the Fourth Circuit did not premise its decision barring the copyright infringement claim pursuant to the doctrine of unclean hands on an associated defense of copyright misuse.... Thus, the pleading requirement that Plaintiff urges here does not appear to exist. <br /><br /> Accordingly, because Plaintiff is on notice of Defendant's allegations that it "seeded" some of its content onto BitTorrent for the purpose of extracting settlements in the numerous copyright infringement suits that it has filed, the Court will decline to strike this defense as well. </i></blockquote> This may not lead to anything, but it's fairly amazing that courts haven't been digging that deeply into Malibu Media's practices in similar cases.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23065931806/judge-curious-if-malibu-media-is-seeding-own-files-engaged-copyright-misuse.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23065931806/judge-curious-if-malibu-media-is-seeding-own-files-engaged-copyright-misuse.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23065931806/judge-curious-if-malibu-media-is-seeding-own-files-engaged-copyright-misuse.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566486730/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c33ac/sc/28/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566486730/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c33ac/sc/28/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566486730/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c33ac/sc/28/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566486730/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c33ac/sc/28/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566486730/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c33ac/sc/28/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566486730/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c33ac/sc/28/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566486730/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c33ac/sc/28/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566486730/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c33ac/sc/28/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566486730/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c33ac/sc/28/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489c33ac/sc/28/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/yPgTqZmEiGQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 21:30:37 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23065931806/judge-curious-if-malibu-media-is-seeding-own-files-engaged-copyright-misuse.shtmlquestions-to-ponderhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150730/23065931806Mike Masnickhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489c33ac/sc/28/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A730A0C230A6593180A60Cjudge0Ecurious0Eif0Emalibu0Emedia0Eis0Eseeding0Eown0Efiles0Eengaged0Ecopyright0Emisuse0Bshtml/story01.htmWikileaks Latest Info-Dump Shows, Again, That The NSA Indeed Engages In Economic Espionage Against Allieshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/VOa_zbhcJyA/story01.htm<p> With all the revelations that have come out about the NSA and our foreign and domestic spy programs, it can, at times, become difficult to parse out exactly what we're supposed to be getting pissed off about and what is the exact kind of spy-work we ought to expect the alphabet agencies to conduct. Some of the groups that are involved in getting these revelations out there don't make it much easier, of course. Take as an example <a href="https://wikileaks.org/nsa-japan/">the latest Wikileaks info-dump</a>, which chiefly concerns the NSA's spy program against our ally Japan. From the press release accompanying the documents: <blockquote> <i>Today, Friday 31 July 2015, 9am CEST, WikiLeaks publishes "Target Tokyo", 35 Top Secret NSA targets in Japan including the Japanese cabinet and Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi, together with intercepts relating to US-Japan relations, trade negotiations and sensitive climate change strategy. The list indicates that NSA spying on Japanese conglomerates, government officials, ministries and senior advisers extends back at least as far as the first administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which lasted from September 2006 until September 2007. The telephone interception target list includes the switchboard for the Japanese Cabinet Office; the executive secretary to the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga; a line described as "Government VIP Line"; numerous officials within the Japanese Central Bank, including Governor Haruhiko Kuroda; the home phone number of at least one Central Bank official; numerous numbers within the Japanese Finance Ministry; the Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry Yoichi Miyazawa; the Natural Gas Division of Mitsubishi; and the Petroleum Division of Mitsui.</i> </blockquote> Now, what Wikileaks is doing is mashing together the NSA spying on the Japanese government, our ally, with Japanese industry. That's silly, in my estimation. In fact, much of the hand-wringing that goes on about our spy networks spying on allies seems naive in the extreme, as if to suggest that our closest allies aren't conducting similar spy programs on our government. You can insist, if you like, that America should not be spying on her allies, but then I get to insist that you grow up, because that's exactly the kind of work you want the NSA doing. <br /><br /> But on the economic side, things get a little murkier. The NSA <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-spy-agencies-mounted-231-offensive-cyber-operations-in-2011-documents-show/2013/08/30/d090a6ae-119e-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814_story.html">has insisted for years</a> that the agency does not engage in economic espionage, actions which would put it out of the norm for how we treat our allies. It's also been clear for some time that the NSA is full of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150629/16134031494/nsa-despite-claiming-it-doesnt-engage-economic-espionage-engaged-economic-espionage.shtml">crap</a> in this regard. This latest Wikileaks dump fleshes out just how much economic espionage we do against our allies, even very close allies like Japan. <blockquote> <i>The documents demonstrate intimate knowledge of internal Japanese deliberations on such issues as: agricultural imports and trade disputes; negotiating positions in the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization; Japanese technical development plans, climate change policy, nuclear and energy policy and carbon emissions schemes; correspondence with international bodies such as the International Energy Agency (IEA); strategy planning and draft talking points memoranda concerning the management of diplomatic relations with the United States and the European Union; and the content of a confidential Prime Ministerial briefing that took place at Shinzo Abe's official residence.</i> </blockquote> It's just more egg on the face of government and security officials who have claimed to have kept their hands clean of economic espionage. There's sure to be more of interest in the documents as they get parsed out, but if nothing else we can be reminded that the NSA is a spy agency and that its officials have been caught lying over and over again. </p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09240231811/wikileaks-latest-info-dump-shows-again-that-nsa-indeed-engages-economic-espionage-against-allies.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09240231811/wikileaks-latest-info-dump-shows-again-that-nsa-indeed-engages-economic-espionage-against-allies.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09240231811/wikileaks-latest-info-dump-shows-again-that-nsa-indeed-engages-economic-espionage-against-allies.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566500840/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c1afd/sc/24/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566500840/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c1afd/sc/24/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566500840/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c1afd/sc/24/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566500840/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c1afd/sc/24/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566500840/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c1afd/sc/24/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566500840/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c1afd/sc/24/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566500840/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c1afd/sc/24/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566500840/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c1afd/sc/24/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566500840/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c1afd/sc/24/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489c1afd/sc/24/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/VOa_zbhcJyA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 20:26:37 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09240231811/wikileaks-latest-info-dump-shows-again-that-nsa-indeed-engages-economic-espionage-against-allies.shtmlwith-friends-like-thesehttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150731/09240231811Timothy Geignerhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489c1afd/sc/24/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A7310C0A9240A2318110Cwikileaks0Elatest0Einfo0Edump0Eshows0Eagain0Ethat0Ensa0Eindeed0Eengages0Eeconomic0Eespionage0Eagainst0Eallies0Bshtml/story01.htmTaylor Swift's Streaming Rant Nearly Identical To Garth Brooks' Used CD Ranthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/zkxkYnXmUEY/story01.htm<p> The music business tends to repeat itself. Conversations that seem completely intertwined with new technologies mirror those over earlier developments. Read <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6990457-piracy">Adrian John's <i>Piracy</i></a>, for example, and see how closely the file-sharing debate followed the one about sheet music a century earlier. </p> <p> Even with that background, the parallels between Taylor Swift's <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150622/22584031428/taylor-swift-is-not-savior-artists-need.shtml">widely discussed</a> <a href="http://taylorswift.tumblr.com/post/122071902085/to-apple-love-taylor">comments</a> about Apple Music earlier this year and Garth Brooks' outspoken stance on used CD sales are striking. It's hard to argue with Swift—she is, after all, a shrewd businesswoman, and who knows what the future holds -- but the fact that Brooks' fears proved so unfounded takes some of the winds out of her sails. We may be at the end of history, and today's problems might be totally unlike the ones we faced before, but probably not. </p> <p> Here's an excerpt of <a href="http://taylorswift.tumblr.com/post/122071902085/to-apple-love-taylor">what Swift said about Apple's free trial</a>: </p> <blockquote><i> <p> I'm sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I'm not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company. </p> <p> This is not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows. This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year's worth of plays on his or her songs. </p> </i></blockquote> <p> And here's a journalist from the <em>Seattle Post-Intelligencer</em> <a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/304702/GARTH-BROOKS-HASNT-THROWN-IN-THE-HAT-ON-USED-CD-CONTROVERSY.html?pg=all">paraphrasing Brooks' comments at his sold-out arena concert</a>, a few months after announcing he would only be selling his new record at stores that did not carry used CDs. </p> <blockquote><i> <p> Brooks said that because no royalties are paid on the sale of used CDs, writers, labels, publishers and artists were being cheated. He said he would only supply chains that sell used CDs with his cassettes, and hinted that he might be working on another "format" to thwart such sales. </p> <p> Brooks said he does not need any money, but lesser-known artists could suffer if secondhand CD sales take off. If used CD sales were to go into massive retail, he said, it would severely affect people in the recording industry, creating a sales loop that would profit only stores but not the creators, publishers and artists. </p> <p> CD retailers, meanwhile, have argued that the cost of new CDs is too high for young buyers, and that selling used CDs exposes an artist's music to different audiences. </p> </i></blockquote> <p> For both Swift and Brooks -- each among the best-selling acts of their generation -- an emerging marketplace that makes music more accessible -- but less well-compensated -- was worth speaking out about. They both note that it's not about them, but about the principle, and that the unpaid exposure would hurt new musicians. Both point to the middleman's profits as an obvious evil. </p> <p> To my mind, both artists are mistaken about the value of exposure and discoverability. Tim O'Reilly's observation that <a href="http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2002/12/11/piracy.html">obscurity is a greater threat to the emerging artist than piracy</a> remains true; it's also true that obscurity is a greater threat than used record sales, free trials, and most everything else. </p> <p> But on the other counts, too, Garth Brooks was wrong. Used CD sales didn't undermine the music industry and they didn't keep new artists from finding audiences. </p> <p> We know this because his <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1993-08-13/business/fi-23386_1_garth-brooks">plan to sell only through certain CD stores failed</a>, amidst anti-trust investigations into his record label. </p> <p> Taylor Swift was, at least narrowly, right. Apple Music should've been paying royalties for its free trials all along. But elsewhere, her skepticism about streaming and business models that include "free" <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150622/22584031428/taylor-swift-is-not-savior-artists-need.shtml">might not be well placed</a>. Unfortunately, because music licensing in this space is fundamentally more of a permissions culture than selling plastic discs was, we may never find out. </p> <p> <i>Reposted from <a href="http://parkerhiggins.net/2015/07/taylor-swift-and-garth-brooks-each-took-on-their-generations-music-bogeyman/" target="_blank">parker higgins dot net</a></i> </p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/06131031809/taylor-swifts-streaming-rant-nearly-identical-to-garth-brooks-used-cd-rant.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/06131031809/taylor-swifts-streaming-rant-nearly-identical-to-garth-brooks-used-cd-rant.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/06131031809/taylor-swifts-streaming-rant-nearly-identical-to-garth-brooks-used-cd-rant.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566455836/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566455836/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566455836/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566455836/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566455836/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566455836/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566455836/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566455836/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566455836/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/zkxkYnXmUEY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 19:21:37 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/06131031809/taylor-swifts-streaming-rant-nearly-identical-to-garth-brooks-used-cd-rant.shtmlwill-swift's-statement-look-so-silly-years-later?https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150731/06131031809Parker Higginshttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489bfe1e/sc/28/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A7310C0A61310A3180A90Ctaylor0Eswifts0Estreaming0Erant0Enearly0Eidentical0Eto0Egarth0Ebrooks0Eused0Ecd0Erant0Bshtml/story01.htmUK Prevent Strategy For Identifying Potential Terrorists Identifies 3 Year Old Because Of Course It Didhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/TE5jSrP-HOs/story01.htm<p> We've talked a lot about the UK's ambitious plan to marry Orwellian thought crime designations with <i>Minority Report</i> style crime-prediction when it comes to stopping all <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_Great_Britain#2010-present">the terrorism that's barely occurred</a> in the country. The basic idea is that the government will create a boogeyman-list of suspected future-terrorists, people who are not strapping bombs to themselves and blowing up marketplaces filled with children -- but <i>might!</i> -- while tasking the <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150605/05422231232/everyones-agent-uk-company-provides-spy-software-to-teachers-to-weed-out-child-terrorists.shtml">educational system</a> with weeding out tiny, little terrorist children using software so laughably <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150715/10274131649/shocking-software-used-to-monitor-uk-students-against-radicalization-found-to-be-exploitable.shtml">flawed</a> that it ought to belong on HBO's <i>Silicon Valley</i>. In other words: hey, great plan! <br /><br /> Well, counted amongst the fruit of all that idiotic labor is the result we all probably saw coming: a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/threeyearold-child-from-london-placed-in-government-antiextremism-programme-10419346.html">goddamn three-year-old has found his/her way</a> onto the watchlist. <blockquote> <i>The three-year-old in the programme is from the borough of Tower Hamlets, and was a member of a family group that had been showing suspect behaviour. Many of the government's counter-extremism measures typically relate to older children and adults - buy very young children can be referred if authorities are concerned about the effect of their families on them.</i></blockquote> The idea being that the UK government's "concern" is centered around extremist parents will produce extremist children as a matter of course and the best way to combat these must-eventually-be extremist toddlers is by putting them on a watchlist run by the same people who did all the stupidity I mentioned in the first paragraph. Sigh. <br /><br /> As it turns out, the <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-child-aged-three-in-terror-alert-over-radicalisation-10418455.html">number of people getting caught up</a> in this prevent strategy system is pretty astounding. <blockquote> <i>They show that a total of 1,069 Londoners have been referred to the government&#8217;s &#8220;Channel&#8221; counter-extremism programme since the start of 2012. That means that the capital accounts for about a quarter of the 4,000 referrals to the programme nationwide since then. The Standard, which obtained the figures from the London Assembly, can also reveal that: Since September last year, 400 Channel referrals were made for teenagers and children under 18.</i></blockquote> This is exactly what you'd expect when the government tasks a great many people who have no formalized training in identifying bad guys with identifying bad guys. It's also exactly what you should expect when the government plan for building up a watch list of future-terrorists, including hundreds of innocent children as young as three years old, comes with a complete lack of common sense and is instead the product of fear mixed with nationalism. And this doesn't even touch on the potential or real-life cases of abuse of the system, which are as inevitable as the sunrise. <br /><br /> Look, security is important, and terrorism is an actual thing, but going off the deep end to the point where you've got government eyes on toddlers isn't a solution to any problem. </p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/10073631802/uk-prevent-strategy-identifying-potential-terrorists-identifies-3-year-old-because-course-it-did.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/10073631802/uk-prevent-strategy-identifying-potential-terrorists-identifies-3-year-old-because-course-it-did.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/10073631802/uk-prevent-strategy-identifying-potential-terrorists-identifies-3-year-old-because-course-it-did.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566423474/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bd574/sc/33/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566423474/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bd574/sc/33/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566423474/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bd574/sc/33/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566423474/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bd574/sc/33/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566423474/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bd574/sc/33/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566423474/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bd574/sc/33/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566423474/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bd574/sc/33/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566423474/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bd574/sc/33/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566423474/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489bd574/sc/33/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489bd574/sc/33/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/TE5jSrP-HOs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 18:19:37 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/10073631802/uk-prevent-strategy-identifying-potential-terrorists-identifies-3-year-old-because-course-it-did.shtmlno-child-left-uncoveredhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150730/10073631802Timothy Geignerhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489bd574/sc/33/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A730A0C10A0A7363180A20Cuk0Eprevent0Estrategy0Eidentifying0Epotential0Eterrorists0Eidentifies0E30Eyear0Eold0Ebecause0Ecourse0Eit0Edid0Bshtml/story01.htmJames Woods Sues Random Trollish Twitter User For $10 Million Over Clearly Hyperbolic Tweethttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/yPjhfVnA9zs/story01.htmEriq Gardner, over at the Hollywood Reporter, was the first of a few sites to post the story of how actor James Woods is ridiculously <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/james-woods-sues-twitter-user-812107" target="_blank">suing a trollish Twitter user for $10 million</a>, arguing that a single tweet from this guy, Abe List, who had all of 2,000-ish followers, somehow hurt Woods' reputation. This is not just hard to believe, but it seems to be dipping into flat out SLAPP territory. The <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2187254/273041980-woods.pdf" target="_blank">full filing</a> is worth reading, and suggests that maybe, just maybe, Woods needs a hobby (and slightly thicker skin). At issue is the Twitter user who goes by the name "Abe List." Whoever that is appears to be a slightly annoying/trollish Twitter user, who has particularly delighted in annoying conservatives on Twitter. A few weeks ago, Woods made a bizarre and slightly nonsensical tweet involving Caitlyn Jenner and Planned Parenthood (don't ask), and Abe List shot back with: <blockquote><i> "@RealJamesWoods @benshapiro cocaine addict James Woods still sniffing and spouting." <br /><br /> -- Abe List (@abelist) July 15, 2015 </i></blockquote> There are a few other historical tweets from Abe List mocking Woods, including one from December calling him a "clown-boy." Clown-boy is clearly not defamatory. The question here is if "cocaine addict" is defamatory. It is a statement of fact, and if it's not actually true, it could <i>potentially</i> be defamatory, but that's hardly the end of the story. As a very public person, Woods would have to show that whoever is behind "Abe List" published the claim "with actual malice." And "hey, I don't like James Woods and think he's a clown boy with stupid views" is hardly "actual malice." It would mean that Abe List either knew it was false and tweeted it anyway, or had "reckless disregard for the truth." That seems unlikely to hold up. <br /><br /> Furthermore, it's fairly clear that, given the context -- both Twitter and Abe List's usual tweets -- that the tweet that so concerns Woods is, at best, hyperbolic mocking on the internet, which wouldn't be defamation either. <br /><br /> And here's the real kicker in all of this: this was a random @reply tweet from a user with around 2000 followers (2,276 when I <a href="https://i.imgur.com/zUhLbp2.png" target="_blank">took a screenshot</a> of his account, right before he took it down entirely). If you're not familiar with how @replies work, if you start a tweet with @username, the only people who will see it directly in their timelines are those who follow <b>both</b> users. That is, the only people who would have seen that tweet show up are people who happen to follow both @RealJamesWoods <b>and</b> @abelist. That venn diagram is likely to be <i>tiny</i> and well less than the 2,276 followers of @abelist. It's <i>possible</i> that if someone opened Woods' original tweet to see how others responded then <i>some</i> of them <i>might</i> have also seen the @abelist tweet -- but the likely number is tiny. And, of course, the only people who would have taken it seriously <i>are idiots</i>. It's pretty clearly just someone spouting off, as people are known to do on the internet. <br /><br /> And, yet, rather than letting this tweet fade into obscurity, as it normally would, Woods has decided to <b>sue for $10 million</b>, apparently based on the idea that lots of people actually saw this tweet (they didn't), and that they were likely to believe such a throwaway claim (which they wouldn't). And the end result is that <i>many, many, many, many more people</i> are not only seeing this tweet and (perhaps for the first time) wondering about whether or not Woods has a cocaine habit, but are also learning that Woods appears to have a ridiculously thin skin -- such that he's upset by the fact that some nobody on the internet called him "clown-boy." <blockquote><i> Woods' claims arise out of and are for damages with respect to a false and defamatory statement which was initially published on or about July 15, 2015 by an unidentified anonymous person who created and who operates a Twitter account under the name "Abe List" (the "AL Twitter Account"). The owner of the AL Twitter Account has <b>thousands</b> of followers and, since at least December 2014, has undertaken to engage his followers with a campaign of childish name-calling targeted at Woods. In the past, AL has referred to Woods with such derogatory terms as "prick," "joke," "ridiculous," "scum" and "clown-boy." </i></blockquote> These are, in fact, mostly childish. But, that's not illegal. We can all say that James Woods is a ridiculous, prick, clown-boy for suing people on Twitter, and it's <b>not defamatory</b>. In fact, as <a href="http://popehat.com/2015/07/31/james-woods-punches-the-muppet/" target="_blank">Ken "Popehat" White points out</a>, the above section actually <i>undermines</i> any case Woods might have, by adding in more context about how Abe List is a trollish Twitter user looking to provoke people he doesn't like. And again, the "thousands" of followers is only true in the "very barely" sense, and the idea that more than a few of those saw the tweet in question is unlikely (again, they need to be followers of both individuals <b>and</b> actually read all their tweets. <br /><br /> But Woods and his lawyer don't seem to have the first clue about how Twitter works. To make the case that more people saw this, Woods is arguing that if you did a Google search on "Abe List James Woods" that tweet would show up <i>along with</i> the one calling Woods "a ridiculous scum clown-boy." <br /><br /> Of course, these days, I'm sure lots of other stuff comes up. <br /><br /> Woods presents zero evidence that <i>anyone</i>, other than James Woods himself (and his lawyers) was busily googling "Abe List James Woods" and yet, he somehow claims that this is evidence that "hundreds of thousands" of people may have seen the tweet. <blockquote><i> AL published, and/or caused to be published or authorized to be published, the False Statement on the AL Twitter Account and in current (as of the date of this Complaint) Google.com search engine results, causing the False Statement to be viewed <b>thousands of times</b> and possibly even <b>hundreds of thousands of times</b> </i></blockquote> And that's based on what appears to be a near total cluelessness about how Twitter, Google and the internet work. What a clown-boy. <br /><br /> So, not only does this ridiculous lawsuit drive <i>much</i> more attention to the various insults, and even the possibly false statement, it also could open up Woods to a pretty significant anti-SLAPP ruling. We've covered many times how California has a strong anti-SLAPP law that lets people quickly respond when it's clear that the only reason they're being sued is to shut them up. Under California's anti-SLAPP law, whoever is behind Abe List may be able to not just get the case tossed out quickly, but get Woods to pay for his lawyers. What a ridiculous clown-boy move by Woods and his lawyers.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23561131807/james-woods-sues-random-trollish-twitter-user-10-million-over-clearly-hyperbolic-tweet.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23561131807/james-woods-sues-random-trollish-twitter-user-10-million-over-clearly-hyperbolic-tweet.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23561131807/james-woods-sues-random-trollish-twitter-user-10-million-over-clearly-hyperbolic-tweet.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566483725/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c2756/sc/15/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566483725/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c2756/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566483725/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c2756/sc/15/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566483725/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c2756/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566483725/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c2756/sc/15/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566483725/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c2756/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566483725/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c2756/sc/15/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566483725/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c2756/sc/15/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566483725/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489c2756/sc/15/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489c2756/sc/15/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/yPjhfVnA9zs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 17:16:37 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23561131807/james-woods-sues-random-trollish-twitter-user-10-million-over-clearly-hyperbolic-tweet.shtmlslappity slapp slapphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150730/23561131807Mike Masnickhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489c2756/sc/15/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A730A0C2356113180A70Cjames0Ewoods0Esues0Erandom0Etrollish0Etwitter0Euser0E10A0Emillion0Eover0Eclearly0Ehyperbolic0Etweet0Bshtml/story01.htmJames Wood Sues Random Trollish Twitter User For $10 Million Over Clearly Hyperbolic Tweethttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/A6BqsyzRUXU/story01.htmEriq Gardner, over at the Hollywood Reporter was the first of a few sites to post the story of how actor James Woods is ridiculously <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/james-woods-sues-twitter-user-812107" target="_blank">suing a trollish Twitter user for $10 million</a>, arguing that a single tweet from this guy, Abe List, who had all of 2,000ish followers, somehow hurt Woods' reputation. This is not just hard to believe, but it seems to be dipping into flat out SLAPP territory. The <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2187254/273041980-woods.pdf" target="_blank">full filing</a> is worth reading, and suggests that maybe, just maybe, Woods needs a hobby (and slightly thicker skin). At issue is the Twitter user who goes by the name "Abe List." Whoever that is appears to be a slightly annoying/trollish Twitter user, who particularly delighted in annoying conservatives on Twitter. A few weeks ago, Woods made a bizarre and slightly nonsensical tweet involving Caitlyn Jenner and Planned Parenthood (don't ask), and Abe List shot back with: <blockquote><i> "@RealJamesWoods @benshapiro cocaine addict James Woods still sniffing and spouting." <br /><br /> -- Abe List (@abelist) July 15, 2015 </i></blockquote> There are a few other historical tweets from Abe List mocking Woods, including one from December calling him a "clown-boy." Clown-boy is clearly not defamatory. The question here is if "cocaine addict" is defamatory. It is a statement of fact, and if it's not actually true, it could <i>potentially</i> be defamatory, but that's hardly the end of the story. As a very public person, Woods would have to show that whoever is behind "Abe List" published the claim "with actual malice." And "hey, I don't like James Woods and think he's a clown boy with stupid views" is hardly "actual malice." It would mean that Abe List either knew it was false and tweeted it anyway, or had "reckless disregard for the truth." That seems unlikely to hold up. <br /><br /> Furthermore, it's fairly clear that, given the context -- both Twitter and Abe List's usual tweets that the tweet that so concerns Woods is, at best, hyperbolic mocking on the internet, which wouldn't be defamation either. <br /><br /> And here's the real kicker in all of this: this was a random @reply tweet from a user with around 2000 followers (2,276 when I <a href="https://i.imgur.com/zUhLbp2.png" target="_blank">took a screenshot</a> of his account, right before he took it down entirely). If you're not familiar with how @replies work, if you start a tweet with @username, the only people who will see it directly in their timelines are those who follow <b>both</b> users. That is, the only people who would have seen that tweet show up are people who happen to follow both @RealJamesWoods <b>and</b> @abelist. That venn diagram is likely to be <i>tiny</i> and well less than the 2,276 followers of @abelist. It's <i>possible</i> that if someone opened Woods' original tweet to see how others responded then <i>some</i> of them <i>might</i> have also seen the @abelist tweet -- but the likely number is tiny. And, of course, the only people who would have taken it seriously <i>are idiots</i>. It's pretty clearly just someone spouting off, as people are known to do on the internet. <br /><br /> And, yet, rather than letting this tweet fade into obscurity, as it normally would, Woods has decided to <b>sue for $10 million</b>, apparently based on the idea that lots of people actually saw this tweet (they didn't), and that they were likely to believe such a throwaway claim (which they wouldn't). And the end result is that <i>many, many, many, many more people</i> are not only seeing this tweet and (perhaps for the first time) wondering about whether or not Woods has a cocaine habit, but are also learning that Woods appears to have a ridiculously thin skin -- such that he's upset by the fact that some nobody on the internet called him "clown-boy." <blockquote><i> Woods' claims arise out of and are for damages with respect to a false and defamatory statement which was initially published on or about July 15, 2015 by an unidentified anonymous person who created and who operates a Twitter account under the name "Abe List" (the "AL Twitter Account"). The owner of the AL Twitter Account has <b>thousands</b> of followers and, since at least December 2014, has undertaken to engage his followers with a campaign of childish name-calling targeted at Woods. In the past, AL has referred to Woods with such derogatory terms as "prick," "joke," "ridiculous," "scum" and "clown-boy." </i></blockquote> These are, in fact, mostly childish. But, that's not illegal. We can all say that James Woods is a ridiculous, prick, clown-boy for suing people on Twitter, and it's <b>not defamatory</b>. In fact, as <a href="http://popehat.com/2015/07/31/james-woods-punches-the-muppet/" target="_blank">Ken "Popehat" White points out</a>, the above section actually <i>undermines</i> any case Woods might have, by adding in more context about how Abe List is a trollish Twitter user looking to provoke people he doesn't like. And again, the "thousands" of followers is only true in the "very barely" sense, and the idea that more than a few of those saw the tweet in question is unlikely (again, they need to be followers of both individuals <b>and</b> actually read all their tweets. <br /><br /> But Woods and his lawyer don't seem to have the first clue about how Twitter works. To make the case that more people saw this, Woods is arguing that if you did a Google search on "Abe List James Woods" that tweet would show up <i>along with</i> the one calling Woods "a ridiculous scum clown-boy." <br /><br /> Of course, these days, I'm sure lots of other stuff comes up. <br /><br /> Woods presents zero evidence that <i>anyone</i>, other than James Woods himself (and his lawyers) was busily googling "Abe List James Woods" and yet, he somehow claims that this is evidence that "hundreds of thousands" of people may have seen the tweet. <blockquote><i> AL published, and/or caused to be published or authorized to be published, the False Statement on the AL Twitter Account and in current (as of the date of this Complaint) Google.com search engine results, causing the False Statement to be viewed <b>thousands of times</b> and possibly even <b>hundreds of thousands of times</b> </i></blockquote> And that's based on what appears to be a near total cluelessness about how Twitter, Google and the internet work. What a clown-boy. <br /><br /> So, not only does this ridiculous lawsuit drive <i>much</i> more attention to the various insults, and even the possibly false statement, it also could open up Woods to a pretty significant anti-SLAPP ruling. We've covered many times how California has a strong anti-SLAPP law that lets people quickly respond when it's clear that the only reason they're being sued is to shut them up. Under California's anti-SLAPP law, whoever is behind Abe List may be able to not just get the case tossed out quickly, but get Woods to pay for his lawyers. What a ridiculous clown-boy move by Woods and his lawyers.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23561131807/james-wood-sues-random-trollish-twitter-user-10-million-over-clearly-hyperbolic-tweet.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23561131807/james-wood-sues-random-trollish-twitter-user-10-million-over-clearly-hyperbolic-tweet.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23561131807/james-wood-sues-random-trollish-twitter-user-10-million-over-clearly-hyperbolic-tweet.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451333/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f10/sc/15/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451333/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f10/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451333/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f10/sc/15/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451333/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f10/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451333/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f10/sc/15/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451333/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f10/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566451333/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f10/sc/15/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566451333/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f10/sc/15/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566451333/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f10/sc/15/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489b4f10/sc/15/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/A6BqsyzRUXU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 17:16:37 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/23561131807/james-wood-sues-random-trollish-twitter-user-10-million-over-clearly-hyperbolic-tweet.shtmlslappity-slapp-slapphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150730/23561131807Mike Masnickhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489b4f10/sc/15/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A730A0C2356113180A70Cjames0Ewood0Esues0Erandom0Etrollish0Etwitter0Euser0E10A0Emillion0Eover0Eclearly0Ehyperbolic0Etweet0Bshtml/story01.htmDaily Deal: Top Deals Of The Monthhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/31wgn_-yjyY/story01.htmI'm a in a bit of shock that tomorrow is August 1. The summer's passing by too quickly. We're trying something new today and highlighting two of our top deals from this month. They are both ending soon so grab them while you can. <br /><br /> Soar, swoop, and flip through the air with 58% off of the <a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/striker-spy-drone?utm_source=techdirt.com&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_campaign=striker-spy-drone">Striker Spy HD-Camera Drone</a>. This drone comes ready for flight with limited set up out of the box and its internal gyro will keep it steady in most flying conditions. The HD camera can snap shots or film your flight for up to 30 minutes. It's lightweight and durable and you'll be the master of your skies in no time. <center><a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/striker-spy-drone?utm_source=techdirt.com&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_campaign=striker-spy-drone"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/72f2ERY.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" width=400/></a></center> <br /><br /> Learn all about cloud computing with 89% off of the <a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/amazon-web-services-engineer-course-bundle?utm_source=techdirt.com&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_campaign=amazon-web-services-engineer-course-bundle">Amazon Web Services Engineer Bootcamp Bundle</a> in the Deals store. In 24 hours over 4 courses, you will learn everything you need to know to work with Amazon’s hosting platform. By the end of the training, you will be prepared for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect (CSA) associate exam (exam fees not included in the bundle). The bundle covers topics newbies and experts will need in order to increase their skills and add another certification to their resumes. <center><a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/amazon-web-services-engineer-course-bundle?utm_source=techdirt.com&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_campaign=amazon-web-services-engineer-course-bundle"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/EsMBsko.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" width=400/></a></center> <br /><br /> <i>Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.</i><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09565531812/daily-deal-top-deals-month.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09565531812/daily-deal-top-deals-month.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09565531812/daily-deal-top-deals-month.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451332/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f14/sc/15/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451332/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f14/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451332/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f14/sc/15/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451332/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f14/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451332/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f14/sc/15/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566451332/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f14/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566451332/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f14/sc/15/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566451332/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f14/sc/15/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566451332/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489b4f14/sc/15/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489b4f14/sc/15/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/31wgn_-yjyY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 17:11:37 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150731/09565531812/daily-deal-top-deals-month.shtmlgood-deals-on-cool-stuffhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150731/09565531812Daily Dealhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489b4f14/sc/15/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A7310C0A95655318120Cdaily0Edeal0Etop0Edeals0Emonth0Bshtml/story01.htmOf All The Ways The DMCA Takedown Process Can Be Responsibly Used, These Are None Of Themhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/HXN3dR10pWM/story01.htm<p> The DMCA takedown notice is a powerful tool. With a minimum of effort, any person can ask for the removal of content or the delisting of a URL. Whether or not they succeed is based on two factors: the relative <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150222/12492130106/total-wipes-decides-word-download-means-infringement-issues-dmca-takedown-loaded-with-non-infringing-urls.shtml" target="_blank">skill level</a> of the person/bot making the request and the <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120312/13265218082/dave-gorman-victim-bogus-dmca-takedown-highlights-flickrs-horrible-dmca-takedown-policy.shtml" target="_blank">credulity/intestinal fortitude</a> of the receiving intermediary. <br /><br /> In the interest of making the internet a slightly better place to be, here's some guidance of what <i>not</i> to do when submitting DMCA takedown notices. <br /><br /> <b>DON'T MISTAKE "GOOGLE" FOR "THE INTERNET"</b> <br /><br /> Andromedical -- despite its name -- makes a device that has little to do with proven medical science. There's no need to fully describe the device's purpose, as the description of the allegedly-infringing content provided by the company <a href="https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/10902772" target="_blank">in its takedown request</a> fills in all the mental blanks. <blockquote> <i>The ilustrations of the penis with a device and the final results in numbers. The ilustration of the cellular multiplication. The photographies of the doctors Dr. Hellstrom or Dr. Moncada or Dr. Gontero or Dr. Gomez or other members of Andromedical Medical Committee. Chart of several parts of the Andropenis device.</i> </blockquote> The "photographies" and "ilustrations" Andromedical wishes to have removed probably contain some of these (totally SFW): <br /><br /> <center><img alt="" src="https://i.imgur.com/2SbufcE.png" style="width: 500px; height: 327px;" /></center> <br /> As you can see, it's highly unlikely anyone would expect these photographs to be owned by anyone other than ANDROMEDICAL. And yet, here we are, watching in fascination as Andromedical asks Google to take down <i>Bing's</i> search results. <br /><br /> <center><img alt="" src="https://i.imgur.com/aimfQEM.png" style="width: 500px; height: 331px;" /></center> <br /> Because Bing has yet to offer any sort of transparency on takedown requests, we can't cross-reference this to see if it was just issued to the wrong search engine. But it's not uncommon for people -- even <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130602/19495023288/british-politicians-theres-child-porn-internet-google-needs-to-do-something-about-it.shtml" target="_blank">legislators</a> and lobbyists -- to believe that Google is the whole of the internet. Or if not that, then at least one of the only doors. <br /><br /> <b>DON'T BE THIS GUY</b> <br /><br /> <center><img alt="" src="https://i.imgur.com/vuTn7Wq.png" style="width: 503px; height: 66px;" /></center> <br /> No one needs you to play Internet Batman and <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/reporters/23531/Yes-It-Is-No-Piracy!/" target="_blank">act as an anti-piracy vigilante squad</a>. You're not just wasting <i>your</i> time, but you're wasting the time of others who could be assisting real rightsholders. You're accomplishing absolutely nothing. <br /><br /> <center><img alt="" src="https://i.imgur.com/IiuZBKV.png" style="width: 500px; height: 333px;" /></center> <br /> You're not even making a dent in piracy, especially when your takedown requests veer suddenly from file lockers and torrent links to PBS.org and Genius.com. The real rightsholders have automated scripts that can generate bogus hits thousands of times faster <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/requests/425848/" target="_blank">than this person can</a>. <br /><br /> <b>DO NOT CREATE A BOGUS WORK-IN-PROGRESS NOVEL IN HOPES OF OBTAINING SOME SORT OF RETROACTIVE COPYRIGHT OVER ARTICLES DETAILING YOUR CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES BY COPYING-PASTING SAID ARTICLES ONTO YOUR PERSONAL WEBSITE, SURROUNDING THEM WITH "EXCERPTS" OF YOUR "BOOK" AND ISSUING TAKEDOWN NOTICES TARGETING THESE FACTUAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE ACTIONS THAT GOT YOU JAILED</b> <br /><br /> Meet <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/owners/120001/Sean-Gjerde/" target="_blank">Sean Gjerde</a>. Convicted in 2013 of <a href="http://hbcriminaldefense.com/california-man-sentenced-to-federal-prison-for-mortgage-fraud-conspiracy" target="_blank">conspiring to commit mortgage fraud</a>, he's now hoping to turn over a new leaf... by engaging in fraudulent behavior. In a <a href="https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/10947106" target="_blank">DMCA takedown notice</a> targeting multiple news articles about his conviction -- <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/sacramento/press-releases/2013/elk-grove-attorney-sentenced-to-more-than-two-years-in-prison-for-role-in-mortgage-fraud-scheme" target="_blank">including the FBI's own press release</a> -- Gjerde claims these news reports are actually excerpts from his upcoming novel. <br /><br /> <center><img alt="" src="https://i.imgur.com/aefUegn.png" style="width: 500px; height: 171px;" /></center> <br /> <a href="https://familylegalexpert.squarespace.com/my-personal-works-of-fiction" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Following the URL</a> he provides, one is greeted by Sean Gjerde's inescapable name, a short bit of introductory material designed to throw off anyone trying to verify his takedown request and&#8230; entire articles pasted into the body of his single post -- which he is now claiming belong to him because he surrounded them with a few paragraphs he wrote himself. And the few paragraphs he did write portray him as the grammatically-challenged victim. <blockquote> <i>This is a excerpt from my new book "Grace Under Pressure" coming next sping as a Amazon exclusive for kindle.</i> <br /><br /> <i>I had always done what I thought was right. How could I have gotten caught up in all this. How is it possible that the Bar didn't see what I did, what I did for my client. I did what every attorney is supposed to do, keep quiet.</i> <br /><br /> <i>I kept my mouth shut, and my award was that they went after me. These people were supposed to protect me. I should be rewarded, not implicated.</i> <br /><br /> <i>Renee, she is my friend. They are accusing me of steeling from my friend. I took her to the movies and baseball games for heavens sake. I took care of her cats. I can't believe they would make this all up. I read the lies and could barely continue.</i> <br /><br /> <i>An Elk Grove lawyer already indicted in federal court for conspiracy to commit mail fraud was charged last month by the State Bar with 36 counts of misconduct in which his victims ranged from desperate clients seeking bankruptcy protection to a legal insurance provider.</i> <br /><br /> <i>SEAN PATRICK GJERDE (#217467), 35, misappropriated more than $80,000 from the beneficiary of a trust for which he served as trustee, engaged in a scheme to defraud a legal insurance provider, repeatedly violated a bankruptcy court order, performed incompetently, failed to return unearned fees, lied on court documents and even forged the names of his partner and a client, according to State Bar documents. Many of the charges involved moral turpitude, dishonesty or corruption.</i> </blockquote> Of course, his protestations of innocence and good intentions are largely undone by his stupid-ass attempt to fake his way into the "controlling rightsholder" position solely for the purpose of burying press coverage of his fraudulent behavior. <br /><br /> And, along those same lines, one more "don't" for DMCA takedowns. <br /><br /> <b><a href="https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/1225079" target="_blank">DON'T IMPERSONATE A FEDERAL OFFICER</a></b> <blockquote> <i>This is the United States Secret Service Washington Field Office requesting removal of false report against a federal agency is a federal violation which could put Google company out of business if this report is not immediately removes ripoffreport.com revews complaint/complaint against the united states secret serive. If not remove within 24 hours of this notice all through out the internet should be removed from Google,Yahoo,Aol.com,Altavista.com,Bing.com and all other sites. You are under major violation of infringment rights against a federal agency name. US Secret Service is a Federal Angency and any misuse of the Agencies name for advertisement or for whatever purpose is not allowed at all on the internet or otherwise by Supreme Justice Court Order Remove This Article At Once from all searches or face court violation charges. US SECRET SERVICE/Attorney General Of Va./The House Of Representatives/US Supreme Court</i> </blockquote> It's well-known that Ripoff Report doesn't humor takedown requests. So, if you wish to be taken more seriously, I guess you escalate until maximum ridiculousness is achieved. Not only does this person claim to be a federal agent, but he also claims to have the weight of Congress and the Supreme Court behind his badly-written, poorly-spelled demands. <br /><br /> And, as if asking for the removal of this link from the entire internet (including Altavista!), "US Secret Service Agent Joe Morrison" does it <a href="https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/751297" target="_blank">three</a> <a href="https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/751300" target="_blank">more</a> <a href="https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/751302" target="_blank">times</a>. One includes ALL CAPS so you know he means business. <blockquote> <i>A Public Warning! Ed Magedson is a WANTED FEDERAL FELON AND SO ARE ALL THE AUTHORS OF THE SITE RIPOFFREPORT.COM JUST TYPE IN THE NAME ED MAGEDSON AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF ABOUT HIS CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES AND HIS ARREST RECORDS!!!!</i> </blockquote> These easy-to-follow rules should help keep rightsholders (or the severely-misguided, full-blown imposters, etc.) from embarassing themselves while simultaneously raising the estimation and visibility of the content they originally wanted removed. The takedown notice is a tool, not a toy. <br /><br /> (P.S. There is likely a far better way to let everyone know a certain former employee will no longer be welcome at company events/kids' birthday parties than <a href="https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/1675863" target="_blank">sending a notice to Google, Inc</a>. <blockquote> <i>Vincent Leahy no longer works for our company. He was arrested last year by the FBI on charges of possession and distribution of child pornography. His trial is underway. We do not want to be associated with this individual, as it may affect our business reputation and major losses could be incurred. The web site has already taken down his testimonial but it still appears on the Google search. Any assistance in correcting this problem asap would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Mike</i> </blockquote> [Note: this may not be an actual DMCA takedown notice. It's simply listed at Chilling Effects as "Other," which it certainly is.]) </p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/12010131782/all-ways-dmca-takedown-process-can-be-responsibly-used-these-are-none-them.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/12010131782/all-ways-dmca-takedown-process-can-be-responsibly-used-these-are-none-them.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/12010131782/all-ways-dmca-takedown-process-can-be-responsibly-used-these-are-none-them.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566474601/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489aef81/sc/15/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566474601/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489aef81/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566474601/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489aef81/sc/15/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566474601/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489aef81/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566474601/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489aef81/sc/15/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566474601/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489aef81/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566474601/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489aef81/sc/15/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566474601/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489aef81/sc/15/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566474601/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489aef81/sc/15/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489aef81/sc/15/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/HXN3dR10pWM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 15:53:25 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150728/12010131782/all-ways-dmca-takedown-process-can-be-responsibly-used-these-are-none-them.shtmlGoogle:-bring-me-the-internethttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150728/12010131782Tim Cushinghttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489aef81/sc/15/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A7280C120A10A1317820Call0Eways0Edmca0Etakedown0Eprocess0Ecan0Ebe0Eresponsibly0Eused0Ethese0Eare0Enone0Ethem0Bshtml/story01.htm4th Amendment Lives: Court Tells US Government Get A Warrant If It Wants Mobile Phone Location Infohttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/pCXBq5W9JgQ/story01.htmA potentially big ruling came out of the courtroom of Judge Lucy Koh yesterday, in which she affirmed a magistrate judge's decision to tell the government to <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2187197/koh-order-affirming-denial-of-csli-application.pdf" target="_blank"><i>get a warrant</i></a> if it wants to obtain historical location info about certain "target" mobile phones (officially known as "Cell Site Location Info" -- or CSLI). The government sought to use a provision of the Stored Communications Act (a part of ECPA, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act) to demand this info without a warrant -- using a much lower standard: "specific and articulable facts" rather than the all important "probable cause." Judge Koh says that's doesn't pass 4th Amendment muster, relying heavily on the important Supreme Court rulings in the Jones case, involving <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120123/11261317515/fourth-amendment-lives-supreme-court-says-gps-monitoring-is-search-that-may-require-warrant-updated.shtml">attaching a GPS</a> device to a car, and the Riley case about <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140625/10272227684/supreme-court-says-law-enforcement-cant-search-mobile-phones-without-warrant.shtml">searching mobile phones</a>. <blockquote><i> Based on the preceding U.S. Supreme Court cases, the following principles are manifest: (1) an individual’s expectation of privacy is at its pinnacle when government surveillance intrudes on the home; (2) long-term electronic surveillance by the government implicates an individual’s expectation of privacy; and (3) location data generated by cell phones, which are ubiquitous in this day and age, can reveal a wealth of private information about an individual. Applying those principles to the information sought here by the government, <b>the Court finds that individuals have an expectation of privacy in the historical CSLI associated with their cell phones, and that such an expectation is one that society is willing to recognize as reasonable.</b> </i></blockquote> This is big. Obviously, the government is likely to appeal, and so as a first pass, this might seem meaningless. We've still got an appeals court (and possibly a rehearing) and a Supreme Court to get to, but as a first ruling, it's a good one. Koh's analysis is pretty thorough. It notes the similarities to both the Jones and Riley cases: <blockquote><i> Here, as in Jones, the government seeks permission to track the movement of individuals—without a warrant—over an extended period of time and by electronic means. CSLI, like GPS, can provide the government with a “comprehensive record of a person’s public movements that reflects a wealth of detail about her familial, political, professional, religious, and sexual associations.” Riley, 134 S. Ct. at 2490 (quoting Jones, 132 S. Ct. at 955 (Sotomayor, J., concurring)). With the proliferation of smaller and smaller base stations such as microcells, picocells, and femtocells—which cover a very specific area, such as one floor of a building, the waiting room of an office, or a single home, ...—the government is able to use historical CSLI to track an individual’s past whereabouts with ever increasing precision. See Riley, 134 S. Ct. at 2490 (explaining that a cell phone’s “[h]istoric location information . . . can reconstruct someone’s specific movements down to the minute, not only around town but also within a particular building”). At oral argument, the government agreed that in some instances CSLI could locate an individual within her home, ... and did not dispute that CSLI will become more precise as the number of cell towers continues to multiply.... This admission is of constitutional significance because rules adopted under the Fourth Amendment “must take account of more sophisticated systems that are already in use or in development.”... <br /><br /> <b>In fact, the information the government seeks here is arguably more invasive of an individual’s expectation of privacy than the GPS device attached to the defendant’s car in Jones.</b> This is so for two reasons. First, as the government conceded at the hearing, over the course of sixty days an individual will invariably enter constitutionally protected areas, such as private residences.... Tracking a person’s movements inside the home matters for Fourth Amendment purposes because “private residences are places in which the individual normally expects privacy free of governmental intrusion not authorized by a warrant, and that expectation is plainly one that society is prepared to recognize as justifiable.” Karo, 468 U.S. at 714; see also Kyllo, 533 U.S. at 31 (“At the very core of the Fourth Amendment stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). As one court put it, “Because cellular telephone users tend to keep their phone on their person or very close by, placing a particular cellular telephone within a home is essentially the corollary of locating the user within the home.” .... <br /><br /> Second, the government conceded at oral argument that, compared to GPS tracking of a car, the government will “get more information, more data points, on the cell phone” via historical CSLI... (“But, yes, of course the person has the phone more than they have their car, most people at least do, so it gives [the government] more data.”). Cell phones generate far more location data because, unlike the vehicle in Jones, cell phones typically accompany the user wherever she goes.... Indeed, according to a survey cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Riley, “nearly three-quarters of smart phone users report being within five feet of their phones most of the time, with 12% admitting that they even use their phones in the shower.”.... </i></blockquote> Judge Koh points to some survey data from Pew (sent in by EFF) noting that many, many people consider their location information to be "sensitive information" and, on top of that, the fact that CSLI is generated even if someone turns off the GPS or "location data" features on their phone -- meaning they can't even opt out of generating such information to try to keep it private. <br /><br /> More importantly, Judge Koh takes on the issue of the infamous <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080530/2014171272.shtml">third party doctrine</a> and the awful Smith v. Maryland precedent, which says you have no expectation of privacy in data held by third parties. To date, the Supreme Court has punted on this issue in the Jones and Riley cases. However, Koh addresses the issue head on, and says the third party doctrine should not apply to phone location data like this. The key issue: in the Smith case, the "information" that was given to the third party was the phone number being dialed. This was information that the caller <i>voluntarily conveyed</i> to the phone company in order to make the call. Judge Koh points out that this information is quite different: <blockquote><i> Cell phone users, by contrast, do not “voluntarily convey” their location to the cellular service provider in the manner contemplated by Miller and Smith. This is especially true when historical CSLI is generated just because the cell phone is on, such as when cell phone apps are sending and receiving data in the background or when the cell phone is “pinging” a nearby cell tower. As the government’s FBI special agent explained, “CSLI for a cellular telephone may still be generated in the absence of user interaction with a cellular telephone.” .... “For example,” the special agent continued, CSLI may be generated by “applications that continually run in the background that send and receive data (e.g. email applications).” ... At oral argument, the government confirmed that its &#167; 2703(d) application authorizes the government to obtain historical CSLI generated by such activities. <br /><br /> [....] In so doing, a cell phone periodically identifies itself to the closest cell tower—not necessarily the closest cell tower geographically, but the one with the strongest radio signal—as it moves through its network’s coverage area.... This process, known as “registration” or “pinging,” facilitates the making and receiving of calls, the sending and receiving of text messages, and the sending and receiving of cell phone data.... Pinging nearby cell towers is automatic and occurs whenever the phone is on, without the user’s input or control.... This sort of pinging happens every seven to nine minutes.... <br /><br /> In Miller and Smith, the individual knew with certainty the information that was being conveyed and the third party to which the conveyance was made. Cell phone users, on the other hand, enjoy far less certainty with respect to CSLI. CSLI, in contrast to deposit slips or digits on a telephone, is neither tangible nor visible to a cell phone user. When the telephone user in Smith received his monthly bill from the phone company, the numbers he dialed would appear.... The CSLI generated by a user’s cell phone makes no such appearance.... Rather, because CSLI is generated automatically whenever a cell tower detects radio waves from a cell phone, a cell phone user typically does not know that her phone is communicating with a cell tower, much less the specific cell tower with which her phone is communicating.... It may be, as the government explained, that a cell phone connects to “many towers” during the length of a call,... and the tower to which a cell phone connects is not necessarily the closest one geographically.... Moreover, when an app on the user’s phone is continually running in the background, ... she may not be aware that the cell phone in her pocket is generating CSLI in the first place. </i></blockquote> And thus, even with the third party doctrine, this information is quite different than that discussed in the Smith v. Maryland case, which involved phone numbers dialed: <blockquote><i> In light of the foregoing, the Court concludes that historical CSLI generated via continuously operating apps or automatic pinging does not amount to a voluntary conveyance of the user’s location twenty-four hours a day for sixty days. Such data, it is clear, may be generated with far less intent, awareness, or affirmative conduct on the part of the user than what was at issue in Miller and Smith. Unlike the depositor in Miller who affirmatively conveyed checks and deposit slips to the bank, or the telephone user in Smith who affirmatively dialed the numbers recorded by the pen register, a cell phone user may generate historical CSLI simply because her phone is on and without committing any affirmative act or knowledge that CSLI is being generated. Smith, for example, never contemplated the disclosure of information while the landline telephone was not even in use. <br /><br /> <b>This sort of passive generation of CSLI does not amount to a voluntary conveyance under the third-party doctrine.</b> </i></blockquote> Judge Koh notes that this ruling isn't rejecting the ruling in Smith -- rightly noting that only the Supreme Court can determine that it's no longer good law -- but notes that the ruling there is different enough from this one that it does not apply. Ideally, the Supreme Court will get around to rejecting the ridiculous third party doctrine altogether, but if it must stand, a ruling like this is helpful in returning just a bit of 4th Amendment protected privacy to the American public.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16271931804/4th-amendment-lives-court-tells-us-government-get-warrant-if-it-wants-mobile-phone-location-info.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16271931804/4th-amendment-lives-court-tells-us-government-get-warrant-if-it-wants-mobile-phone-location-info.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16271931804/4th-amendment-lives-court-tells-us-government-get-warrant-if-it-wants-mobile-phone-location-info.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566469699/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489a52ac/sc/7/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566469699/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489a52ac/sc/7/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566469699/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489a52ac/sc/7/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566469699/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489a52ac/sc/7/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566469699/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489a52ac/sc/7/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566469699/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489a52ac/sc/7/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566469699/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489a52ac/sc/7/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566469699/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489a52ac/sc/7/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566469699/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/489a52ac/sc/7/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489a52ac/sc/7/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/pCXBq5W9JgQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 14:16:25 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16271931804/4th-amendment-lives-court-tells-us-government-get-warrant-if-it-wants-mobile-phone-location-info.shtmllook-at-thathttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150730/16271931804Mike Masnickhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/489a52ac/sc/7/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A730A0C1627193180A40C4th0Eamendment0Elives0Ecourt0Etells0Eus0Egovernment0Eget0Ewarrant0Eif0Eit0Ewants0Emobile0Ephone0Elocation0Einfo0Bshtml/story01.htmYes, German Authorities Are Pushing Treason Charges Against Netzpolitik For Publishing Surveillance Planshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/Sviu9m5-6EI/story01.htmA few weeks ago, we reported that it appeared German investigators were investigating the excellent German news site <a href="https://netzpolitik.org/" target="_blank">Netzpolitik</a>, which covers a lot of the same issues that we do at Techdirt, with a similar sensibility. Netzpolitik had just <a href="https://netzpolitik.org/2015/geheimer-geldregen-verfassungsschutz-arbeitet-an-massendatenauswertung-von-internetinhalten/" target="_blank">published</a> stories concerning plans to expand German bulk surveillance efforts to internet users, as well as plans by the German Secret Service to <a href="https://netzpolitik.org/2015/secret-department-we-present-the-new-german-domestic-secret-service-unit-to-extend-internet-surveillance/" target="_blank">expand</a> its internet surveillance capabilities. As part of this, the site (like we do) published source documents concerning those plans. The site's editor-in-chief Markus Beckedahl, noted: <blockquote><i> Naturally, we uploaded the original documents relating to our article because there was still enough disk space and because it is part of our philosophy to enable our readers to inform themselves using the original source. Thus, they can scrutinise us and our reporting. </i></blockquote> This resulted in claims of an investigation for "treason," though some later <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/07/german-authorities-investigate-surveillance-leaks" target="_blank">clarified</a> that it appeared that the investigation was into who leaked the info to Nezpolitik, and the site's staff were seen as <i>witnesses</i>, rather than potential <i>defendants</i>. Except... nope. It looks like the original fears were accurate. <br /><br /> Netzpolitik has received a letter from the German government telling it that <a href="https://netzpolitik.org/2015/suspicion-of-treason-federal-attorney-general-announces-investigation-against-us-in-addition-to-our-sources/" target="_blank">Netzpolitik staffers are being investigated for treason</a>: <blockquote><i> If it were up to the Federal Attorney General and the President of the German Domestic Security Agency, two of our reporters would soon be in prison for at least two years. Today, we were officially informed about investigations against our Markus Beckedahl, Andre Meister and an "unknown" party. The accusation: Treason. <br /><br /> Today, we received a letter from the Federal Attorney General of Germany confirming ongoing investigations against our reporters Markus Beckedahl, Andre Meister and an "unknown" source, suspecting us of treason according to the <a href="http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stgb.html#p0973">German Penal Code</a>: <blockquote>Whosoever […] allows a state secret to come to the attention of an unauthorised person or to become known to the public in order to prejudice the Federal Republic of Germany or benefit a foreign power and thereby creates a danger of serious prejudice to the external security of the Federal Republic of Germany, shall be liable to imprisonment of not less than one year.</blockquote> Until now, we were reported merely as witnesses in the case, but now we shall be held responsible (for treason) like our unknown source(s) – as <a href="http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stgb.html#p0143">joint principals</a>. </i></blockquote> As Netzpolitik itself notes, this is an incredible attack on the freedom of the press, and the site says it's geared up to fight. Either way, this should really call into question the priorities of the German government, looking to <i>intimidate</i> reporters, rather than hold an open debate about surveillance practices. Makes you wonder what else they're afraid is going to come out....<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16425131805/yes-german-authorities-are-pushing-treason-charges-against-netzpolitik-publishing-surveillance-plans.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16425131805/yes-german-authorities-are-pushing-treason-charges-against-netzpolitik-publishing-surveillance-plans.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16425131805/yes-german-authorities-are-pushing-treason-charges-against-netzpolitik-publishing-surveillance-plans.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566405248/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48993f4b/sc/24/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566405248/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48993f4b/sc/24/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566405248/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48993f4b/sc/24/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566405248/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48993f4b/sc/24/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566405248/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48993f4b/sc/24/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566405248/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48993f4b/sc/24/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566405248/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48993f4b/sc/24/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566405248/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48993f4b/sc/24/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566405248/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48993f4b/sc/24/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48993f4b/sc/24/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/Sviu9m5-6EI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:05:47 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150730/16425131805/yes-german-authorities-are-pushing-treason-charges-against-netzpolitik-publishing-surveillance-plans.shtmlthis-is-ridiculoushttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150730/16425131805Mike Masnickhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48993f4b/sc/24/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A730A0C1642513180A50Cyes0Egerman0Eauthorities0Eare0Epushing0Etreason0Echarges0Eagainst0Enetzpolitik0Epublishing0Esurveillance0Eplans0Bshtml/story01.htmContrary To What You've Heard, TPP Will Undermine US Law -- Including Supreme Court Decisionshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/srWyBZHukfY/story01.htmOne of the key lines of pure unadulterated bullshit spread by the USTR concerning the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement is that it won't lead to significant changes in US law. That's just wrong. As KEI points out, it's pretty clear that the current text would <a href="http://keionline.org/node/2293" target="_blank">completely undermine key Supreme Court rulings</a> concerning state sovereign immunity from intellectual property disputes. Zack Struver and Tazio De Tomassi created a short video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbVQZa85xVQ" target="_blank">explaining why</a>: <center> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RbVQZa85xVQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </center> The specific issue is that, under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" target="_blank">11th Amendment</a> to the Constitution, state governments are given "sovereign immunity" from most legal issues in federal court. And, when it comes to things like patents, the Supreme Court decided that Congress could not pass a law that <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/98-531.ZS.html" target="_blank">takes away such sovereign immunity</a> from the states. <br /><br /> In practice, this means state governments -- including things like research universities -- are able to infringe on patents in the public interest, claiming sovereign immunity in state courts against such claims. We've pointed out in the past how hypocritical it is that state universities frequently use such sovereign immunity claims to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071113/173911.shtml">avoid lawsuits</a>, while at the same time being some of the most aggressive patent trolls in going after others (with the University of California being a prime example). However, it is the law of the land and in the Constitution that sovereign immunity on things like patents <b>cannot</b> be abridged. <br /><br /> Yet, as the video above notes, the TPP appears to get rid of that, and would open up states, at the very least, to these international corporate sovereignty tribunals (also known as Investor State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS, tribunals). <br /><br /> In other words, the USTR may single-handedly undermine the Constitution's 11th Amendment, overturning Supreme Court precedent on the subject in a deal negotiated entirely in secret, with patent holders (who hate the sovereign immunity protections) as the key advisors. That's not how our government is supposed to work. <br /><br /> The threat here isn't just theoretical. Beyond the various patent cases that universities and state governments have been able to toss out via sovereign immunity, the video mentions the infamous lawsuit <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141017/14481728861/appeals-court-overturns-important-fair-use-win-concerning-university-e-reserves-potentially-good-reasons.shtml">against Georgia State University</a> over its e-reserves program. While that case has focused on the fair use questions involved, it's entirely possible that Georgia State could also claim sovereign immunity. And since the plaintiffs suing Georgia State are "foreign" publishers (including Oxford University Press and Cambridge Press), under the ISDS system, rather than going to a US court that would recognize sovereign immunity, they could just go to an ISDS tribunal which wouldn't care about sovereign immunity. <br /><br /> Do we really want the USTR completely wiping out part of our Constitution (which has helped enable university research) via a secretive trade agreement with no public accountability?<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/23003431797/contrary-to-what-youve-heard-tpp-will-undermine-us-law-including-supreme-court-decisions.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/23003431797/contrary-to-what-youve-heard-tpp-will-undermine-us-law-including-supreme-court-decisions.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/23003431797/contrary-to-what-youve-heard-tpp-will-undermine-us-law-including-supreme-court-decisions.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566401585/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48987b6d/sc/24/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566401585/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48987b6d/sc/24/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566401585/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48987b6d/sc/24/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566401585/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48987b6d/sc/24/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566401585/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48987b6d/sc/24/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566401585/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48987b6d/sc/24/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566401585/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48987b6d/sc/24/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566401585/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48987b6d/sc/24/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566401585/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48987b6d/sc/24/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48987b6d/sc/24/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/srWyBZHukfY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 10:05:47 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150729/23003431797/contrary-to-what-youve-heard-tpp-will-undermine-us-law-including-supreme-court-decisions.shtmlisn't-this-a-problem?https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150729/23003431797Mike Masnickhttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48987b6d/sc/24/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A7290C230A0A34317970Ccontrary0Eto0Ewhat0Eyouve0Eheard0Etpp0Ewill0Eundermine0Eus0Elaw0Eincluding0Esupreme0Ecourt0Edecisions0Bshtml/story01.htmFeds Hand Out Funds To Be Used For 'Traffic Safety;' Local Agencies Buy License Plate Readers Insteadhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/QEeYNRAggKE/story01.htm<p> The National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA) is supposed to be focused on one thing: safety. For crying out loud, it's right in the middle of its cumbersome name. <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-future/us-department-transportation-funding-license-plate-readers-documents-reveal" target="_blank">But the federal funding it hands out to state and local governments is being used for surveillance devices with no discernible "safety" purpose</a>: automatic license plate readers. <blockquote> <i>The NHTSA is funding license plate readers for highway safety purposes only, but it&#8217;s far from clear how law enforcement agencies are interpreting this and whether they are using the funding to buy license plate readers for non-safety uses. The NHTSA should not be funding police technology for surveillance purposes and it should not let law enforcement apply for funding to decrease traffic fatalities and then turn around and use those funds to track people not suspected of any crime.</i></blockquote> This is how things are <i>supposed</i> to run versus how things <i>actually </i>run. This funding dodge is pretty much indiscernible from law enforcement agencies obtaining DHS/DoD grants for Stingrays and Bearcats to combat "terrorism," and then using the equipment to do banal, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140619/09211027625/stingray-documents-show-law-enforcement-using-terrorism-to-obtain-equipment-to-fight-regular-crime.shtml" target="_blank">routine policework</a>, like tracking down drug dealers. <br /><br /> So, in the name of "safety," local agencies are asking for federal funding, and then using the subsidization to deploy new surveillance tech. Standard operating procedure. And the companies manufacturing this equipment clearly recognize these exploitable funding opportunities and target prospective purchasers accordingly. <blockquote> <i>Private license plate reader manufacturers have further facilitated NHTSA granting funds for license plate reader systems by connecting state and local law enforcement agencies with the funding streams. In one 2012 email exchange, an employee of an ALPR maker <a href="https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/24467-24470.pdf" target="_blank">advises</a> the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles that &#8220;NHTSA funding is available for traffic safety&#8221; and provides contact information. Indeed, the company has a whole <a href="http://elsag.com/grant_guide.htm" target="_blank">page</a> of its website devoted to connecting law enforcement agencies with sources of funding.</i></blockquote> In essence, the companies are telling agencies this equipment is pretty much free. And it is, as long as you don't think too hard about the original source of the funding: taxpayers. Exploiting this federal funding allows agencies to claim safety is a priority while not actually moving towards that goal. Instead, they get the location tracking technology they want and allow the public to pick up the tab. Then this equipment is turned around and pointed at the same people paying for it, sometimes literally as a <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150330/08345330483/virginia-towns-using-federally-funded-license-plate-readers-to-collect-local-taxes.shtml" target="_blank">tool of tax collection</a>. <br /><br /> And it looks as if this broken, abused system will only get worse. The ACLU reports the NHTSA is <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&#038;mode=form&#038;id=d688ebfce7cf7dd4e26652e8b869ad49&#038;tab=core&#038;tabmode=list&#038;=" target="_blank">soliciting bids</a> for a study into the use of license plate readers to improve driver safety. That this obviously arrives well after NHTSA funds have been used to purchase plate readers is already problematic. Beyond that, any conclusions drawn from the report will simply provide law enforcement agencies with handy citations to use when requesting funding for equipment they have no interest in using for "public safety" reasons. </p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150724/07455931749/feds-hand-out-funds-to-be-used-traffic-safety-local-agencies-buy-license-plate-readers-instead.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150724/07455931749/feds-hand-out-funds-to-be-used-traffic-safety-local-agencies-buy-license-plate-readers-instead.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150724/07455931749/feds-hand-out-funds-to-be-used-traffic-safety-local-agencies-buy-license-plate-readers-instead.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566414624/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48968538/sc/7/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566414624/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48968538/sc/7/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566414624/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48968538/sc/7/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566414624/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48968538/sc/7/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566414624/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48968538/sc/7/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566414624/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48968538/sc/7/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566414624/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48968538/sc/7/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566414624/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48968538/sc/7/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566414624/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/48968538/sc/7/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48968538/sc/7/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/QEeYNRAggKE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 06:02:00 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150724/07455931749/feds-hand-out-funds-to-be-used-traffic-safety-local-agencies-buy-license-plate-readers-instead.shtmlprotective-non-custodyhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20150724/07455931749Tim Cushinghttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/48968538/sc/7/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A150A7240C0A74559317490Cfeds0Ehand0Eout0Efunds0Eto0Ebe0Eused0Etraffic0Esafety0Elocal0Eagencies0Ebuy0Elicense0Eplate0Ereaders0Einstead0Bshtml/story01.htmDailyDirt: Colonizing Spacehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~3/9MAEXEPKc5k/story01.htmThere have been several proposals for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mission_to_Mars#Mission_proposals">manned missions to Mars</a>. Some proposals include a colony; most don't. It's obvious that animals have evolved to live on Earth and <b>not</b> in space, and it will take quite a bit of adjustment to get comfortable in a space colony of any kind -- whether it exists on the moon or Mars or just floats around somewhere in between. In any case, if we're serious about visiting other planets, we'll need to figure out how to survive the journey (and pay for it). Here are just a few links on the topic of colonizing space, even though no one has a complete plan for how to do so. <ul> <li> <a title="http://www.popsci.com/colonizing-moon-may-be-90-percent-cheaper-we-thought?" href="http://bit.ly/1LOsXXW">A NASA-commissioned study estimates that a mission to colonize the moon might be 90% cheaper than previously thought.</a> Instead of $100 billion, a $10 billion price tag for a moon colony sounds like a great deal, but it would depend on several factors: partnerships with private companies and international space agencies, re-usable rocket technology, as well as the presence of lunar resources such as water and/or hydrogen in the lunar crust. [<a href="http://www.popsci.com/colonizing-moon-may-be-90-percent-cheaper-we-thought?">url</a>]</li> <li> <a title="http://jumpstartfund.com/#!/p/colonize-mars/overview" href="http://bit.ly/1D6LX2l">Creating a viable Mars colony is a daunting task, but if it's going to happen, a project has to start somewhere.</a> JumpStartFund has a project that anyone can join, but it doesn't look like too many people are contributing to such a wild scheme without billion-dollar backing. [<a href="http://jumpstartfund.com/#!/p/colonize-mars/overview">url</a>]</li> <li> <a title="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/project-exodus-critic-at-large-kolbert" href="http://nyr.kr/1S9lg3M">Mark and Scott Kelly are twin astronauts who are part of an experiment to document the effects on the human body spending a year in space.</a> Scott Kelly will be orbiting the Earth in the ISS while his identical brother will be studied on Earth. Other astronauts have spent more <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeri_Polyakov">time in space</a>, but this will be the first American study of long-term health effects on an astronaut including an identical twin control. There are plenty of challenges for space colonies that haven't been solved yet, but knowing a few more details about long-term space exposure couldn't hurt. [<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/project-exodus-critic-at-large-kolbert">url</a>]</li> </ul> After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our <a title="https://deals.techdirt.com/" href="https://bit.ly/tddailydeals">Daily Deals</a> for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101015/12140511450/dailydirt-colonizing-space.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101015/12140511450/dailydirt-colonizing-space.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101015/12140511450/dailydirt-colonizing-space.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br /><br clear='all'/><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566443862/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/rc/1/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566443862/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566443862/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/rc/2/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566443862/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566443862/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/rc/3/rc.htm" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234566443862/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img" border="0"/></a><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566443862/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/234566443862/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/234566443862/u/49/f/661541/c/35345/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/a2t.img" border="0"/><img width='1' height='1' src='http://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/9MAEXEPKc5k" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101015/12140511450/dailydirt-colonizing-space.shtmlurls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101015/12140511450Michael Hohttp://techdirt.feedsportal.com/c/35345/f/661541/s/4894c4b0/sc/15/l/0M0Stechdirt0N0Carticles0C20A10A10A150C12140A511450A0Cdailydirt0Ecolonizing0Espace0Bshtml/story01.htm